title: Self-organized pattern formation of a bacteria colony modeled by a reaction diffusion system and nucleation theory.
abstract: Self-organized pattern formation is observed in bacterial colony growth. The recently reported knotted-branching pattern of the Bacillus circulans colony consists of the trajectories of aggregates which grow, move, and reproduce simultaneously. We modeled these processes by combining a reaction diffusion system of nutrient dynamics, nucleation theory for aggregate generation, and individual based dynamics of motion and growth of aggregates. The branching pattern produced by computer simulation shows great similarity with experiments. Response to the initial nutrient concentration is also consistent with the experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical System Engineering, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Tokyo, Japan. joe@biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Joe Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wakano
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maenosono
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Komoto
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eiha
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
mesh_terms: D001407:Bacillus / Q000254:growth & development*; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D008954:Models, Biological; D012685:Sepharose
chemical_list: D012685:Sepharose