In relation to the overarching themes and objectives of EvoMotion, PI Dr Wan published a 24-page perspective/concept article entitled ‘Origins of eukaryotic excitability’ (Wan & Jekely, 2021), as part of a major 2-part series in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on basal cognition across the tree of life from bacteria to single-celled eukaryotes, all the way to animals. This work, conceived during the first covid lockdown period in the UK, proposes a new conceptual framework against which eukaryotic behaviour can be assessed, identifying key cellular innovations associated with eukaryogenesis, particularly the role of cell size – ability for the cell to overcome rotational diffusion and achieve deterministic trajectories, the role of cilia – an importance and ubiquitous organelle that enables finer structural and dynamic control, and the role of bioelectrical signalling – a means by which rapid sensory and motor cues can be transduced or enacted. This work has already received 30 citations and is now regularly used as a teaching resource.
On ciliary coordination and whole-organism navigation, we have made significant progress in developing data-driven models of self-propelled microswimmers, with particular focus on the model single-celled eukaryote Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the mechanisms of active biciliary coordination. The modelling efforts are led by PDRA Dr Cortese and PI Wan, and has resulted in a number of publications (Cortese & Wan PRL 2021, Cortse & Wan 2022 biorxiv preprint, and Guo et al, J.Roy.Soc. Interface 2021). Our 2021 paper entitled ‘control of helical navigation by three-dimensional flagellar beating’ explained the biomechanical origin of the corkscrewing swimming motion for the first time, and received an editors’ suggestion in the journal Physical Review Letters.
In another study, co-led by project members Bentley and Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer and supervised by PI Wan, we present a novel droplet microfluidics-based assay for comprehensively phenotyping microswimmer movement at the single-cell level (including trajectory history and probability fluxes) in response to a variety of controlled physical, photo, and chemical cues. This major study was accepted and is now in press at the journal eLife, scheduled for publication later this month.
We have also published our first paper on roboflagellates (Diaz et al, 2021) – macroscopic robotic models of quadriflagellate microswimmers, in collaboration with our US collaborators. This first proof-of-principle design demonstrates feasibility, we are now extending this control architecture to model directional response such as phototaxis. In relation to diatom motility we have made significant progress in phenotyping the movement of diverse species, the first paper associated with this is currently being prepared by PDRF Bondoc-Naumovitz. New experimental and computational expertise developed directly as part of EvoMotion are currently being used in new collaborations that have unexpected become possible. PhD student Poon led our new paper on the cilia-driven movement of coral larvae (Poon et al, biorxiv preprint 2022).
In terms of dissemination of research results at conferences, in the first year the team gave a total of around 20 virtual presentations at national and international conferences, and invited seminars. Since the resumption of in-person meetings/travel, the team has given >30 further talks, ensuring that our results are widely disseminated and in a timely manner. PI Wan also secured a 3-month Eleonore-Trefftz Visiting Professorship to TU Dresden to explore collaborations related to EvoMotion.
