Shape of the growing front of biofilms

2017/06/07 by Xin Wang, Howard A. Stone, Ramin Golestanian · 31 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Bacteria #Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing #Biofilm #Biological system #Biology #Cell biology #Chemical physics #Classical mechanics #Ecology #Front (military) #Function (biology) #Key (lock) #Mechanics #Meteorology #Micro and Nano Robotics #Nanotechnology #Physics #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Surface tension #Tension (geology) #Thermodynamics #Transient (computer programming) #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph #q-bio.CB

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aa983f

published in New Journal of Physics 19(12), 125007 (IOP Publishing) · 13 pages, 4 figures

arxiv created 2017/06/07 · openalex publication_date 2017/11/03 · arxiv updated 2019/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

The spatial organization of bacteria in dense biofilms is key to their collective behaviour, and understanding it will be important for medical and technological applications. Here we study the morphology of a compact biofilm that undergoes unidirectional growth, and determine the condition for the stability of the growing interface as a function of the nutrient concentration and mechanical tension. Our study suggests that transient behaviour may play an important role in shaping the structure of a biofilm.

Citations

• Clusters, asters, and collective oscillations in chemotactic colloids
• Revival and identification of bacterial spores in 25- to 40-million-year-old Dominican amber
• The penetration of a fluid into a porous medium or Hele-Shaw cell containing a more viscous liquid
• Pattern formation outside of equilibrium
• Biofilms: Survival Mechanisms of Clinically Relevant Microorganisms
• The Mechanics and Statistics of Active Matter
• Viscous flows in two dimensions
• Differential interaction forces govern bacterial sorting in early biofilms
• MICROBIAL BIOFILMS