Fractal scaling of microbial colonies affects growth.
The growth dynamics of filamentary microbial colonies is investigated. Fractality of the fungal or actinomycetes colonies is shown both theoretically and in numerical experiments to play an important role. The growth observed in real colonies is described by the assumption of time-dependent fractality related to the different ages of various parts of the colony. The theoretical results are compared to a simulation based on branching random walks.
Károlyi
György
G
Center for Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics, and Department of Structural Mechanics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. karolyi@tas.me.bme.hu
D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial / Q000379:methods*; D017709:Fractals; D005658:Fungi / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical