A chemotactic model for interaction of antagonistic microflora colonies: front asymptotics and numerical simulations

TL;DR

This paper presents a chemotactic model illustrating how chemical signals inhibit the invasion of one microbial species by another, supported by asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations, aligning with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a two-dimensional chemotactic model capturing antagonistic interactions and analyzes front asymptotics and stability, providing new insights into microbial colony dynamics.

Findings

Chemical inhibits invasion of second species

Stable steady states depend on chemical concentration

Model aligns with experimental observations

Abstract

This paper studies a two-dimensional chemotactic model for two species in which one of them produces a chemo-repellent for the other. It is shown asymptotically and numerically how the chemical inhibits the invasion of a moving front for the second species and how stable steady states, which depend on the chemical concentration, can be reached. The results qualitatively explain experimental observations by Swain and Ray (Microbiol. Res. 164(2), 2009), where colonies of bacteria produce metabolite agents which prevent the invasion of fungi.