Dynamic-energy-budget-driven fruiting-body formation in myxobacteria.

We develop an interacting particle model to simulate the life cycle of myxobacteria, which consists of two main stages--the swarming stage and the development (fruiting body formation) stage. As experiments have shown that the phase transition from swarming to development stage is triggered by starvation, we incorporate into the simulation a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) called the dynamic energy budget, which controls the uptake and use of energy by individuals. This inclusion successfully automates the phase transition in our simulation. Only one parameter, namely, the food density, controls the entire simulation of the life cycle.