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Consumption, supply and transport: self-organization without direct communication
1Physics Department, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721, USA. kessler@galileo.physics.arizona.edu
Mathematics and Computers in Simulation
|April 1, 1996
Summary
Swimming Bacillus subtilis bacteria create large-scale patterns by consuming oxygen and generating convection currents. This self-organization allows bacterial populations to behave like a single organism, enhancing nutrient and oxygen transport.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Fluid Dynamics
- Biophysics
Background:
- Swimming bacteria like Bacillus subtilis require oxygen.
- Bacterial swimming behavior influences oxygen gradients in liquid cultures.
- Cell density variations due to accumulation create fluid convection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how swimming bacteria self-organize into large-scale patterns.
- To understand the interplay between bacterial behavior, oxygen gradients, and fluid dynamics.
- To elucidate the mechanisms behind emergent collective behavior in bacterial populations.
Main Methods:
- Mathematical modeling of bacterial swimming and fluid dynamics.
- Experimental studies in static liquid cultures.
- Analysis of pattern formation and convection enhancement.
Main Results:
- Bacterial swimming towards oxygen gradients and interfaces generates convection.
- Density variations caused by cell accumulation drive fluid motion.
- Complex physical and biological factors lead to ordered patterns over >10,000 cell diameters.
- Convection significantly enhances long-range transport of oxygen, cells, and products.
Conclusions:
- Bacillus subtilis populations exhibit emergent self-organization into dynamic patterns.
- This collective behavior enhances resource distribution and environmental interaction.
- The study reveals how simple physical and biological rules lead to complex, coordinated group behavior resembling a multicellular organism.