Skip to main content
. 2015 Aug 6;5(4):20150030. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2015.0030

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Rotational streaming in the characean algae. (a) A shoot of Chara corallina anchored in agar. Single-celled internodes connect nodal complexes where a whorl of six branchlets is formed. (b) Cytoplasmic streaming takes place along two domains shaped as spiralling bands. (c) This circulation is driven by the motion of myosin molecular motors along bundled actin filaments. This image shows a merged stack of confocal slices, with the colours denoting the focal position. Actin bundles can be observed below chloroplast rows at the surface of the cell. (Image courtesy S. Ganguly.) (d) The motion of myosin at the periphery entrains the outer layer of cytoplasm, which is of order 10 µm in thickness. The two moving bands are separated by a neutral line visible as a row of missing chloroplasts. The motion at the wall induces a shear flow in the central vacuole of the cell.