In dilute suspensions of swimming microorganisms the local fluid velocity is a random superposition of the flow fields set up by the individual organisms, which in turn have multipole contributions decaying as inverse powers of distance from the organism. Here we show that the conditions under which the central limit theorem guarantees a Gaussian probability distribution function of velocities ...

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a science superstar. This diminutive green alga with 1 cell and 2 lively flagella, and the nickname Chlamy, consistently punches above its weight in the arena of big research (Harris 2001). When not basking in freshwater ponds, it is found in laboratory beakers, helping researchers answer essential questions about the evolution and physiology of cells. In 2007, Chla...

Despite a great deal of interest, the evolutionary origins and roles of sex remain unclear. Recently, we showed that in the multicellular green alga, Volvox carteri, sex is a response to increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could be indicative of the ancestral role of sex as an adaptive response to stress-induced ROS. To provide additional support for the suggestion that sex...

The Zuotin-family J protein chaperone GlsA is essential for the asymmetric divisions that establish germ and somatic cell initials during embryogenesis in the green alga Volvox carteri, but it is not known on what cellular process GlsA acts to carry out this function. Most GlsA protein is nuclear, and GlsA possesses two SANT domains, suggesting that GlsA may function as a transcriptional regula...