Regularized Stokeslets Simulations of Crithidia fasciculata Motility

Cellular motility is crucial to many biological processes. At the microscopic scale, cell motility is largely characterized by swimming driven by rod-like appendages such as flagella or cilia in viscous-dominated, low-Reynolds-number fluids. The Trypanosomatidae family, a group of unicellular and uniflagellate parasites that infect humans, livestock, and other organisms, includes many species with poorly understood motility. In this project, we investigate the fluid dynamics of swimming for the organism Crithidia fasciculata, a widely used model system for other Trypanosomatid parasites. Using the method of regularized Stokeslets, we developed computational models of the swimmer that match experimental observations of flagellar kinematics. We use these models to resolve the swimming dynamics and the surrounding flow fields with high spatiotemporal precision. Analysis of the simulation results suggests that, on average, C. fasciculata attains a near-maximum in swimming efficiency for its particular body geometry.