Self-organizing models of bacterial aggregation states

In this work, aggregation states of bacteria on engineered surfaces are investigated both from the experimental point of view and from the theoretical one. The starting point of this work is a series of experiments carried out on abiotic surfaces in which bacteria adhere forming self-organized patterns. To reproduce the main characteristics of the phenomenon a model based on self-organization of a group of agents has been used. The agents represent bacteria and are free to move on a given surface. On the basis of local rules they may adhere and then eventually form self-organized aggregates. Our numerical results demonstrate that few simple rules are able to explain the emergence of self-organized patterns. Depending on the parameters used, the model is able to reproduce the aggregation patterns observed under different experimental conditions and to predict the behavior of a culture of two bacterial species.