STUDIES OF THE FORCE SENSITIVITY OF INDIVIDUAL SWIMMING PROTISTS USING MAGNETIC FORCE BUOYANCY VARIATION

利用磁力浮力变化研究游泳原生生物个体的力敏感性

• 批准号: 0750360
• 负责人: James Valles
• 金额: $ 33.04万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-15 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0750360&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STUDIES; FORCE; SENSITIVITY; INDIVIDUAL; SWIMMING

In this proposal the PI will study the force sensing mechanism in a representative of the unicellular organisms: paramecia. Paramecium fights its tendency to sediment exerting a stronger propulsive force when it swims upward than when it swims downward. This behavior indicates that paramecia can sense forces corresponding to pressure differences that are less than 1/10,000,000th of atmospheric pressure. To investigate the unknown source of this sensitive force response the PI will apply forces on paramecia and measuring how the geometry and speed of their swimming trajectories change. The characteristics of their trajectories will reveal their force sensing mechanisms. The methods will employ the intense magnetic fields generated at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. Magnetic fields will also be used to direct and contain the swimming paramecia so that they can study individual swimmers for extended periods of time. In addition to workers in the cell force sensing field, the results will be of interest to the community of scientists interested in cell motility and in particular, low Reynolds number swimming. The proposed experiments will serve as the PhD thesis work for a PhD student at Brown University. It will expose the student to all aspects of experimental research including experimental design, data acquisition and analysis, and results dissemination. The student will develop expertise in biophysics including mechano-transduction in cells and cell motility and this training will augment our nations science and technology base.

在本提案中，主要研究者将研究单细胞生物体的代表：副神经元的力感机制。草履虫对抗沉积物的倾向，当它向上游时比向下游时产生更大的推进力。这一行为表明，paramentary可以感应到压力差小于1/10，000，000大气压力的力。为了调查这种敏感力响应的未知来源，PI将对参数施加力，并测量它们游泳轨迹的几何形状和速度如何变化。它们的运动轨迹特征将揭示它们的力觉机制。这些方法将使用在佛罗里达塔拉哈西的国家高磁场实验室产生的强磁场。磁场也将被用来指导和包含游泳参数，以便他们可以研究个人游泳者延长时间。除了细胞力传感领域的工作人员外，对细胞运动感兴趣的科学家社区，特别是低雷诺数游泳，也会对结果感兴趣。建议的实验将作为布朗大学博士生的博士论文工作。它将使学生接触到实验研究的各个方面，包括实验设计，数据采集和分析以及结果传播。学生将发展生物物理学的专业知识，包括细胞和细胞运动的机械转导，这种培训将增强我们国家的科学和技术基础。