Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
Bull Math Biol. 2021 Apr 15;83(5):60. doi: 10.1007/s11538-021-00887-3.
Biofilms are complex communities of bacteria that exhibit a variety of collective behaviors. These behaviors improve their ability to survive in many different environments. One of these collective behaviors seen in Bacillus subtilis is the ability for starving cells to stop the growth of other cells using potassium signaling and voltage changes. This signaling produces an oscillatory growth pattern so that during periods of low growth the nutrients diffuse deeper into the biofilm and reach the nutrient-starved, interior regions of the biomass. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model to describe this oscillatory behavior, and we use this model to develop a two-dimensional simulation that reproduces many of the important features seen in the experimental data. This simulation allows us to examine the spatial patterning of the oscillatory behavior to better understand the relationships between the various regions of the biofilm. Studying the spatial components of the metabolic and voltage oscillations could allow for the development of new control techniques for biofilms with complex shapes.
生物膜是由细菌组成的复杂群落，表现出多种集体行为。这些行为提高了它们在许多不同环境中生存的能力。枯草芽孢杆菌中观察到的一种集体行为是，饥饿细胞能够利用钾信号和电压变化阻止其他细胞的生长。这种信号产生了一种振荡生长模式，因此在生长缓慢的时期，营养物质会扩散得更深，进入生物膜，并到达营养匮乏的生物量内部区域。在本文中，我们开发了一个数学模型来描述这种振荡行为，并使用该模型开发了一个二维模拟，再现了实验数据中观察到的许多重要特征。该模拟使我们能够检查振荡行为的空间模式，以更好地理解生物膜各个区域之间的关系。研究代谢和电压振荡的空间成分可以为具有复杂形状的生物膜开发新的控制技术。
