Regular Article

On the growth of non-motile bacteria colonies: an agent-based model for pattern formation

¹ Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Deán Funes 3350, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina
² Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas de Mar del Plata (IFIMAR-CONICET), Deán Funes 3350, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina
³ Physics Department and Center for Polymer Studies, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA

^a e-mail: lvassallo@mdp.edu.ar

Received: 16 May 2019
Received in final form: 30 July 2019
Published online: 18 September 2019

Abstract

In the growth of bacterial colonies, a great variety of complex patterns are observed in experiments, depending on external conditions and the bacterial species. Typically, existing models employ systems of reaction-diffusion equations or consist of growth processes based on rules, and are limited to a discrete lattice. In contrast, the two-dimensional model proposed here is an off-lattice simulation, where bacteria are modelled as rigid circles and nutrients are point-like, Brownian particles. Varying the nutrient diffusion and concentration, we simulate a wide range of morphologies compatible with experimental observations, from round and compact to extremely branched patterns. A scaling relationship is found between the number of cells in the interface and the total number of cells, with two characteristic regimes. These regimes correspond to the compact and branched patterns, which are exhibited for sufficiently small and large colonies, respectively. In addition, we characterise the screening effect observed in the structures by analysing the multifractal properties of the growth probability.