Shear-oriented Microfibrils in the Mucilaginous Investments of Two Motile Oscillatoriacean Blue-Green Algae

Trichomes of two oscillatoriacean blue-green algae execute screw-like gliding motion, but the two organisms differ from each other with respect to the screw sense of motion. Electron microscopy of serial longitudinal sections reveals extracellular microfibrils which lie roughly parallel to stream-lines at the surface of each organism. The author proposes that the microfibrils are oriented by shear in a zone just external to the outer unit membrane-like component of the cell wall.