The biomechanical role of overall-shape transformation in a primitive multicellular organism: A case study of dimorphism in the filamentous cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis.

ABSTRACT: Morphological transformations in primitive organisms have long been observed; however, its biomechanical roles are largely unexplored. In this study, we investigate the structural advantages of dimorphism in Arthrospira platensis, a filamentous multicellular cyanobacterium. We report that helical trichomes, the default shape, have a higher persistence length (Lp), indicating a higher resistance to bending or a large value of flexural rigidity (kf), the product of the local cell stiffness (E) and the moment of inertia of the trichomes' cross-section (I). Through Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), we determined that the E of straight and helical trichomes were the same. In contrast, our computational model shows that I is greatly dependent on helical radii, implying that trichome morphology is t

SUBMITTER: Chaiyasitdhi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5945045 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature