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Volvox barberi (Chlorophyceae) actively forms two‐dimensional flocks in culture
Author(s) -
Balasubramanian Ravi N.,
McCourt Richard M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/jpy.13139
Subject(s) - flock , biology , multicellular organism , chlorophyceae , somatic cell , ecology , zoology , botany , algae , chlorophyta , genetics , gene
Volvox barberi is a multicellular green alga forming spherical colonies of 10,000–50,000 differentiated somatic and germ cells. We observed that in culture, these colonies actively self‐organized in just a few minutes into “flocks” that contained as many as 100 colonies moving and rotating collectively for hours. The colonies in flocks formed two‐dimensional, irregular, active crystals, that is, geometric lattices within which individual colonies rotated separately. These groupings sometimes disassembled back into individual colonies just as quickly, but in some cases, flocks persisted over several hours. Close inspection of flock formation in the presence of a tracer dye suggested that colony and flock rotations were producing vortices in the fluid medium over a range spanning multiple flock diameters, perhaps providing a physical mechanism for aggregation.