A P system model of swarming and aggregation in a Myxobacterial colony

Abstract

Bacterial communities provide an interesting subject for the study of emergence and complexity as the consequence of many local interactions. In particular, the soil-dwelling social bacterium Myxobacteria demonstrates two distinct types of motility, social motility via the sensing of bacterial slime deposits and adventurous motility. Both modes of motility are governed by local interactions. Using P systems, a membrane computing methodology based on compartmental rewrite rules for modelling computational processes; this work demonstrates how minimal set of rules can model swarming and aggregating behaviour in Myxobacteria bacterial populations. Our model uses a multi-environment P system similar a 2D cellular automaton to represent the substrate environment whilst stochastic rule selection dictates Myxobacterial motion according to behaviour observed in vitro. The rules account for both mechanisms of motility, the deposit and detection of slime, a change in direction due to C-signal induction and the mixing of population numbers. Simulations demonstrate an extensible computational framework for the modelling of bacterial behaviour, with the potential for extension into additional emergent behaviours.