Diatom Gliding Motility

Book excerpt: DIATOM GLIDING MOTILITY Moving photosynthetic organisms are still a great mystery for biologists and this book summarizes what is known and reports the current understanding and modeling of those complex processes. The book covers a broad range of work describing our current state of understanding on the topic, including: historic knowledge and misconceptions of motility; evolution of diatom motility; diatom ecology & physiology; cell biology and biochemistry of diatom motility, anatomy of motile diatoms; observations of diatom motile behavior; diatom competitive ability, unique forms of diatom motility as found in the genus Eunotia; and models of motility. This is the first book attempting to gather such information surrounding diatom motility into one volume focusing on this single topic. Readers will be able to gather both the current state of understanding on the potential mechanisms and ecological regulators of motility, as well as possible models and approaches used to help determine how diatoms accomplish such varied behaviors as diurnal movements, accumulation into areas of light, niche partitioning to increase species success. Given the fact that diatoms remain one of the most ecologically crucial cells in aquatic ecosystems, we hope that this volume will act as a springboard towards future research into diatom motility and even better resolution of some of the issues in motility. Audience Diatomists, phycologists, aquatic ecologists, cellular physiologists, environmental biologists, biophysicists, diatom nanotechnologists, algal ecologists, taxonomists.