Continuum model for the spatiotemporal growth of bacterial colonies

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Abstract
A model for the spatiotemporal growth of bacterial colonies is introduced based on a reaction-diffusion equation with local and nonlocal modes of growth. If the local coarse-grained cell concentration is less than the physical close-packing concentration, local growth occurs. However, nonlocal growth occurs at the surface of a colony if local growth cannot account for the amount of growth required by the global growth law. The model is implemented for the radial growth of independent spherical colonies and applied to the growth of bacterial colonies immobilized within a gel.