Lattice-Boltzmann model for bacterial chemotaxis

We present a new numerical approach for modeling bacterial chemotaxis and the fate and transport of a chemoattractant in bulk liquids. This Lattice-Boltzmann method represents the microorganisms and the chemoattractant by quasi-particles that move, collide, and react with each other on a two-dimensional numerical lattice. We use the model to simulate traveling bands of bacteria along self-generated gradients in substrate concentration in bulk liquids. Particularly, we simulate Pseudomonas putida that respond chemotactically to naphthalene dissolved in water. We find that only a fraction of a bacterial slug injected into a domain containing the chemoattractant at constant concentration forms a traveling band as the slug length exceeds a critical value. An expanding bacterial ring forms as one injects a droplet of bacteria into a two-dimensional domain.