Figure 10.

Coordination between peristaltic body contractions and sucker-mediated propulsion in S. mansoni under confinement. (a) Head length (area between the oral and ventral sucker) of a worm as a function of time (blue) together with body width at a longitudinal position near the head (red) under confinement (100 µm gap). The magenta and green points in the bright field image to the left mark the anterior and posterior ends of the head region, whereas the yellow point marks the location at which body width was plotted. Scale bar = 1 mm. (b) Montage of bright field images showing how peristaltic waves of body contraction are initiated whenever the head region reaches its minimum length. White arrowheads mark the position of body wave, and the green and magenta dashed lines indicate the positions of ventral and oral suckers, respectively. (c) Composite kymograph of head length (top, grey colour map) and body width (bottom, rainbow colour map). The data show multiple instances when peristaltic body contraction waves (blue ridges) firing at the point when the head length is shortest (dark grey). (Online version in colour.)