The development of biofilm architecture

Journal article

We extend the one-dimensional polymer solution theory of bacterial biofilm growth described by Winstanley et al. (2011 Proc. R. Soc. A 467, 1449-1467 (doi:10.1098/rspa.2010.0327)) to deal with the problem of the growth of a patch of biofilm in more than one lateral dimension. The extension is non-trivial, as it requires consideration of the rheology of the polymer phase. We use a novel asymptotic technique to reduce the model to a free-boundary problem governed by the equations of Stokes flow with non-standard boundary conditions. We then consider the stability of laterally uniform biofilm growth, and show that the model predicts spatial instability; this is confirmed by a direct numerical solution of the governing equations. The instability results in cusp formation at the biofilm surface and provides an explanation for the common observation of patterned biofilm architectures.

Authors: Fowler, A; Kyrke-Smith, T; Winstanley, H

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Royal Society
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society A
• Volume: 472
• Issue: 2188
• Pages: 19
• Publication date: 2016-04-20
• Acceptance date: 2016-03-21
• DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2015.0798
• ISSN: 1471-2946 and 1364-5021
• Pmid: 27274688
• Language: English
• Keywords: biofilm architecture; biofilm structure; biofilm pattern; SBTMR; instability