Formation and dissolution of bacterial colonies
Weber CA, Lin YT, Biais N, Zaburdaev V (2015)
Publication Status: Published
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2015
Journal
Publisher: AMER PHYSICAL SOC
Book Volume: 92
Journal Issue: 3
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.032704
Abstract
Many organisms form colonies for a transient period of time to withstand environmental pressure. Bacterial biofilms are a prototypical example of such behavior. Despite significant interest across disciplines, physical mechanisms governing the formation and dissolution of bacterial colonies are still poorly understood. Starting from a kinetic description of motile and interacting cells we derive a hydrodynamic equation for their density on a surface, where most of the kinetic coefficients are estimated from experimental data for N. gonorrhoeae bacteria. We use it to describe the formation of multiple colonies with sizes consistent with experimental observations. Finally, we show how the changes in the cell-to-cell interactions lead to the dissolution of the bacterial colonies. The successful application of kinetic theory to a complex far from equilibrium system such as formation and dissolution of living bacterial colonies potentially paves the way for the physical quantification of the initial stages of biofilm formation.
Authors with CRIS profile
Additional Organisation(s)
Involved external institutions
City University of New York CUNY
United States (USA) (US)
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme (MPI PKS) / Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
Germany (DE)
United States (USA) (US)
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme (MPI PKS) / Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
Germany (DE)
How to cite
APA:
Weber, C.A., Lin, Y.T., Biais, N., & Zaburdaev, V. (2015). Formation and dissolution of bacterial colonies. Physical Review E, 92(3). https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.032704
MLA:
Weber, Christoph A., et al. "Formation and dissolution of bacterial colonies." Physical Review E 92.3 (2015).
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