An agent-based model of metabolic signaling oscillations in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.

ABSTRACT: Microbes of nearly every species can form biofilms, communities of cells bound together by a self-produced matrix. It is not understood how variation at the cellular level impacts putatively beneficial, colony-level behaviors, such as cell-to-cell signaling. Here we investigate this problem with an agent-based computational model of metabolically driven electrochemical signaling in Bacillus subtilis biofilms. In this process, glutamate-starved interior cells release potassium, triggering a depolarizing wave that spreads to exterior cells and limits their glutamate uptake. More nutrients diffuse to the interior, temporarily reducing glutamate stress and leading to oscillations. In our model, each cell has a membrane potential coupled to metabolism. As a simulated biofilm grows, collective m

SUBMITTER: Mulder OJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12694845 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature