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Influence of spatial structure on effective nutrient diffusion in bacterial biofilms

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Abstract

The main contribution of this paper is to use homogenization techniques to compute diffusion coefficients from experimental images of microbial biofilms. Our approach requires the analysis of several experimental spatial structures of biofilms in order to derive from them a Representative Volume Element (RVE). Then, we apply a suitable numerical procedure to the RVE to derive the diffusion coefficients. We show that diffusion coefficients significantly vary with the biofilm structure. These results suggest that microbial biofilm structures can favour nutrient access in some cases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the project ANR DISCO (ANR DISCO 09-SYSC-003, SYSCOMM call). The first author’s work is carried out at the French Regional Council of Auvergne. This publication only reflects the authors’ view.

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  1. Irstea - LISC (Laboratoire d’Ingénierie des Systèmes Complexes) 24, avenue des Landais, BP 50 085-63 172, Aubière Cedex 1, France

    Thomas Guélon, Jean-Denis Mathias & Guillaume Deffuant

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  1. Thomas Guélon
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  2. Jean-Denis Mathias
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  3. Guillaume Deffuant
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Correspondence to Jean-Denis Mathias.

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Guélon, T., Mathias, JD. & Deffuant, G. Influence of spatial structure on effective nutrient diffusion in bacterial biofilms. J Biol Phys 38, 573–588 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10867-012-9272-x

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