Chapter 5 Cell Attachment Mechanisms in the Flagellate, Colacium (Euglenophyceae)

This chapter discusses that the general pattern of attachment by cells of Colacium is not unique. The same general steps have been outlined for the association-specific behavior patterns of parasites as well as in part, for zoospore attachment by Characium and the ship-fouling alga, Enteromorpha. The organisms as small as Colacium, have been found to have a very small Reynolds number. They will be affected by hydrodynamic and electrostatic forces at the substrates boundary layer. Presumably, the spiraling behavior and/or the pancake landings of Colacium are both in response to a turbulent boundary layer on the surface of an active substrate organism. The fact that some clones should exhibit two methods of penetrating this layer and other clones have only one cannot be explained with the existing data.