The European Physical Journal E ( IF 1.8 ) Pub Date : 2021-03-23 , DOI: 10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00052-7 Timothy Krüger 1 , Katharina Maus 1 , Verena Kreß 1 , Elisabeth Meyer-Natus 1 , Markus Engstler 1
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Abstract
We describe a system for the analysis of an important unicellular eukaryotic flagellate in a confining and crowded environment. The parasite Trypanosoma brucei is arguably one of the most versatile microswimmers known. It has unique properties as a single microswimmer and shows remarkable adaptations (not only in motility, but prominently so), to its environment during a complex developmental cycle involving two different hosts. Specific life cycle stages show fascinating collective behaviour, as millions of cells can be forced to move together in extreme confinement. Our goal is to examine such motile behaviour directly in the context of the relevant environments. Therefore, for the first time, we analyse the motility behaviour of trypanosomes directly in a widely used assay, which aims to evaluate the parasites behaviour in collectives, in response to as yet unknown parameters. In a step towards understanding whether, or what type of, swarming behaviour of trypanosomes exists, we customised the assay for quantitative tracking analysis of motile behaviour on the single-cell level. We show that the migration speed of cell groups does not directly depend on single-cell velocity and that the system remains to be simplified further, before hypotheses about collective motility can be advanced.
Graphic abstract
中文翻译：
$$布氏锥虫$$布氏锥虫在薄层流体集合体中的单细胞运动行为
抽象的
我们描述了一种在有限和拥挤的环境中分析重要的单细胞真核鞭毛虫的系统。寄生虫布氏锥虫可以说是已知最通用的微型游泳者之一。作为单个微型游泳者，它具有独特的特性，并且在涉及两个不同宿主的复杂发育周期中对其环境表现出显着的适应（不仅在运动方面，而且尤为突出）。特定的生命周期阶段显示出令人着迷的集体行为，因为数以百万计的细胞可能被迫在极端的限制下一起移动。我们的目标是直接在相关环境中检查这种运动行为。因此，我们首次在广泛使用的测定中直接分析锥虫的运动行为，该测定旨在评估群体中寄生虫的行为，以响应尚未知的参数。为了了解锥虫是否存在或存在何种类型的集群行为，我们定制了用于在单细胞水平上对运动行为进行定量跟踪分析的测定方法。我们表明，细胞群的迁移速度并不直接取决于单细胞速度，并且在提出有关集体运动的假设之前，该系统仍有待进一步简化。
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