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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Quantitative Locomotion Study of Freely Swimming Micro-organisms Using Laser Diffraction
Published on: October 25, 2012
How dinoflagellates swim
1Marine Biological Laboratory (University of Copenhagen), Helsingør, Denmark. tfenchel@zi.ku.dk
Abstract:
Dinoflagellates possess two flagella; usually these are directed perpendicular to one another constituting a transversal flagellum and a longitudinal, trailing flagellum, respectively. The transversal flagellum causes the cell to rotate around its length axis. The trailing flagellum is responsible for the translation of the cell; due to its asymmetric insertion it also causes a rotation of the cell around an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. Together, these two rotational components result in a helical swimming path. Cells can vary the two rotational components independently as well as the translational velocity. With these three degrees of freedom, cells can vary the parameters of their helical swimming paths for steering. Dinoflagellates use this mechanism for orientation in chemical concentration gradients ("helical klinotaxis").
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