Lubricating bacteria model for the growth of bacterial colonies exposed to ultraviolet radiation

In this paper, we study the morphological transition of bacterial colonies exposed to ultraviolet radiation by modifying the bacteria model proposed by Delprato Our model considers four factors: the lubricant fluid generated by bacterial colonies, a chemotaxis initiated by the ultraviolet radiation, the intensity of the ultraviolet radiation, and the bacteria's two-stage destruction rate with given radiation intensities. Using this modified model, we simulate the ringlike pattern formation of the bacterial colony exposed to uniform ultraviolet radiation. The following is shown. (1) Without the UV radiation the colony forms a disklike pattern and reaches a constant front velocity. (2) After the radiation is switched on, the bacterial population migrates to the edge of the colony and forms a ringlike pattern. As the intensity of the UV radiation is increased the ring forms faster and the outer velocity of the colony decreases. (3) For higher radiation intensities the total population decreases, while for lower intensities the total population increases initially at a small rate and then decreases. (4) After the UV radiation is switched off, the bacterial population grows both outward as well as into the inner region, and the colony's outer front velocity recovers to a constant value. All these results agree well with the experimental observations [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 158102 (2001)]. Along with the chemotaxis, we find that lubricant fluid and the two-stage destruction rate are critical to the dynamics of the growth of the bacterial colony when exposed to UV radiation, and these were not previously considered.