Agent-Based Modeling Reveals Possible Mechanisms for Observed Aggregation Cell Behaviors: Aggregation of Myxococcus xanthus

Myxococcus xanthus is a soil bacterium that serves as a model system for biological self-organization. Cells form distinct, dynamic patterns depending on environmental conditions. An agent-based model (ABM) was used to understand how M. xanthus cells aggregate into multicellular mounds in response to starvation. In this model, each cell is modeled as an agent, represented by a point-particle and characterized by its position and moving direction. At low agent density, the model recapitulates the dynamic patterns observed by experiments and a previous biophysical model.

https://ift.tt/2OCoWe7