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Analytical solutions for distributions of chemotactic bacteria

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Abstract

This paper reports general and specialized results on analytical solutions to the governing phenomenological equations for chemotactic redistribution and population growth of motile bacteria. It is shown that the number of bacteria cells per unit volume,b, is proportional to a certain prescribed function ofs, the concentration of the critical substrate chemotactic agent, for steady-state solutions through an arbitrary spatial region with a boundary that is impermeable to bacteria cell transport. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the steady-state solution forb ands is unique for a prescribed total number of bacteria cells in the spatial region and a generic Robin boundary condition ons. The latter solution can be approximated to desired accuracy in terms of the Poisson-Green's function associated with the spatial region. Also, as shown by example, closed-form exact steady-state solutions are obtainable for certain consumption rate functions and geometrically symmetric spatial regions. A solutional procedure is formulated for the initialvalue problem in cases for which significant population growth is present and bacteria cell redistribution due to motility and chemotactic flow proceeds slowly relative to the diffusion of the chemoattractant substrate. Finally, a remarkably simple exact analytical solution is reported for a stradily propagating plane-wave which features motility, chemotactic motion and bacteria population growth regulated by substrate diffusion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Drexel University, 19104, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.

    Gerald Rosen

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  1. Gerald Rosen
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Rosen, G. Analytical solutions for distributions of chemotactic bacteria. Bltn Mathcal Biology 45, 837–847 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02460053

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02460053

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