A quasi-elastic light scattering and cinematographical comparison of three strains of motile Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: a wild type strain, a colchicine resistant mutant and a backward swimming mutant.

Quasi-elastic light scattering and cinematographical techniques were used to investigate the motility of three strains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: a wild cell type (WI), a colchicine resistant mutant (CO), and a backward swimming mutant (BA). Mathematical models were developed which reproduced the experimental autocorrelation functions for each of the three types of cells. These models were based on the physical characteristics of the cells' motion and the values of the parameters in the models were compared with those values that could be obtained from cinematography. Mean progressive speeds for these cells were found to be 84 microns s-1 (WI), 70 microns s-1 (CO) and 30 microns s-1 (BA).