Colony Expansion of Socially Motile Myxococcus xanthus Cells Is Driven by Growth, Motility, and Exopolysaccharide Production
Fig 3
The expansion rate saturates after a transient lag phase that depends on the initial cell density.
The model predicts a transient lag phase in the expansion rate with density dependence followed by a constant steady-state expansion rate for all densities. At low density the EPS level is low and slow expansion occurs due to the basal diffusion rate D0. Over time the EPS level increases leading to a steady state phase with a constant expansion rate determined by Dp.