Emerging Patterns in Bacterial Colony

Kumar, Rahul (2016) Emerging Patterns in Bacterial Colony. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (MS dissertation of Rahul Kumar (11MS043)) Rahul_Kumar-11MS043.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (3MB)

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is to give a theoretical model for the formation of bacterial colony patterns. When we grow bacteria in labs, it generates diverse kind of pattern like: uniform, dendritic, branched, concentric ring etc. Here we have given a theoretical model to uncover the underlying dynamics, which explain these pattern formation by bacterial colony. The main aim of this thesis is to study the trade of between the motility and biofilm forming capacity of bacterial colony. The study of bacterial colony is important for de- tection and diagnosis of various types of infection caused by bacteria. In the first part, we have studied the general framework of reaction diffusion equation to model a single bacterial colony pattern. In the later part we have built a model to study the pattern formation by these two kind of bacterial colony. The bacteria which have high motility are called hyperswarmers. They spread away very fast and hence don't form biofilms. Those bacteria which form bio film have less motility and therefore they are resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria could become hyperswarmers or biofilm former due to some mutation which is thought to be induced by the surroundings medium in which it has been grown. This can either give advantage or disadvantage to it against the antibiotics. Mostly bacterial colonies are influenced by nutrient,growing medium and other factors like:-temperature, moisture, initial plating etc. The same factors like:-nutrient, growing medium, temperature, moisture are also responsible for its growth and pattern formation. Therefore if we understand the factors and dynamics responsible for pattern formation by bacterial colony, we can trace its influence over its motility and could understand better the swarming capacity of the bacterial colony. This can be used to design better drugs to target and eliminate bacte- rial infection. As with any mathematical model,we have tried to capture the most important factors which in uence the pattern formation by bacterial colony. But as any living system constantly exchange energy, matter and information with surrounding, therefore there are a lot of other factors which also plays a role in the final outcome of patterns. There- fore this model provides a basic platform which needs to be further explored to better understand the growth of bacterial colony patterns.

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