In freshwater environments, as well as in oceans, environmental conditions are in constant fluctuation. Some heterotrophic plankton must adapt their swimming behavior in order to survive under these conditions. In the case of the choanoflagellate, the closest animal ancestor, the ability to forage for food is given not only by its single flagellum, but also by its differentiation between fast and slow swimmers. The understanding of how these cells with different strategies to swim search for food can give us a better insight into how eukaryotes respond to different stimuli. In this work, we have designed a microfluidic device that sorts choanoflagellates by their speed. The optimal geometry was found by a numerical model using the experimentally determined motilities of each swimmer type.
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Authors
Veronica I. Marconi
IFEG-CONICET and FaMAF, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina
Gaston L. Mi{\~n}o
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139,
Javier Sparacino
IFEG-CONICET and FaMAF, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
Adolfo J. Banchio
IFEG-CONICET and FaMAF, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina
Carlos A. Condat
IFEG-CONICET and FaMAF, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina
Mimi A.R. Koehl
Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Nicole King
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
Roman Stocker
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139,
