Fig. 7.

Diatom gliding motility in a complex 3D environment. (A) 3D environment design. Schematic of a 3D substrate (total depth: 2,000 to 2,500 μm) made up of cryolite (gray circles) which has a refractive index similar to seawater. The observation area was limited to 200 μm depth. Diatoms can occupy the interstices between and glide along the surfaces of the cryolite particles. Fluorescence image showing the distribution of cells (magenta) in the 3D environment (gray background). (Scale bar, 100 μm.) (B) Sample tracks of Seminavis gliding motility in 3D. (C) Seminavis exhibits the four behavioral states in 3D, each color represents a separate 10 μm z-slice. (D) Mean-squared displacement curves from the 3D experimental data and simulations.