“Artificial flagellates” selective attachment of flagella as a bioactuator of micro-object

We propose a method for attaching flagella to a selected region of a micro-object. We separated the flagella of unicellular algae Chlamydomonas from their body and reactivate them by adding adenosine triphosphate (ATP). We fixed them on a specific region of micro-scale beads using a device that has a perforated Parylene sheet separating a flagella solution from a no-flagella one. We have succeeded in attaching flagella to 5 mum-diameter beads. After that, we observed various behaviors of the beads attached with flagella: rotation, oscillation, and advancing motion like that of the Chlamydomonas. We believe that flagella can be utilized as bioactuators for various micro devices.