RT Journal Article
T1 Computer simulation study of nutrient-driven bacterial biofilm stratification
A1 Lobo Cabrera, Francisco Javier
A1 Herrero, María del Río
A1 Govantes, Fernando
A1 Cuetos, Alejandro
K1 Nutrient-driven
K1 Bacterial biofilm
AB Here, employing computer simulation tools, we present a study on the development of a bacterial biofilm from a single starter cell on a flat inert surface overlaid by an aqueous solution containing nutrients. In our simulations, surface colonization involves an initial stage of two-dimensional cell proliferation to eventually transition to three-dimensional growth leading to the formation of biofilm colonies with characteristic three-dimensional semi-ellipsoids shapes. Thus, we have introduced the influence of the nutrient concentration on bacterial growth, and calculated the cell growth rate as a function of nutrient uptake, which in turn depends on local nutrient concentration in the vicinity of each bacterial cell. Our results show that the combination of cell growth and nutrient uptake and diffusion leads to the formation of stratified colonies containing an inner core in which nutrients are depleted and cells cannot grow or divide, surrounded by an outer, shallow crust in which cells have access to nutrients from the bulk medium and continue growing. This phenomenon is more apparent at high uptake rates that enable fast nutrient depletion. Our simulations also predict that the shape and internal structure of the biofilm are largely conditioned by the balance between nutrient diffusion and uptake
PB The Royal Society
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23163
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23163
LA en
NO Lobo-Cabrera Francisco Javier, Herrero María del Río, Govantes Fernando and Cuetos Alejandro (2024)Computer simulation study of nutrient-driven bacterial biofilm stratification. J. R. Soc. Interface. Vol. 21, Issue 215
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaciónn and FEDER (project no. PID2021-126121NB-I00)Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades de la Junta de Andalucía/FEDER (project no. P20-00816).
NO Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales
DS RIO
RD May 13, 2026