Competitive growth morphologies

red ball Competing variants would generically expand at different rates.

yellow ball The bulging circular arc is a common morphology for growth of a fitter mutant:

yellow ball "Selective sweeps in growing microbial colonies," Korolev, Muller, Karahan, Murray, Halatschek, Nelson, Phys. Biol 9, 026008 (2012)

red ball Possible morphologies can be explored by coupling expansion profile (KPZ) and invasion (FKPP) equations (neglecting noise):

yellow ball Ignoring invasion front shape, one possible geometry is a Circular Arc:

                            

yellow ball Another morphology is a Composite Bulge joining the flat front at a fixed slope:

                

 yellow ball Positive slopes occur for  slower mutant growth, leading to V-shaped Dents:

                  

This is somewhat surprising, as slower growth of isolated colonies suggests that they would lose out in competition.

However, such a V-shaped dent, with take-over of a slower growing mutant was observed recently:

yellow ball"Slow expanders invade by forming dented fronts in microbial colonies," Hyunseok Lee, J. Gore and K.S. Korolev, PNAS 119, e2108653119..

red ball Phase diagram of possible growth morphologies:

 yellow ball Fixed selective advantage (pulled wavefront)

 yellow ball Allee effect and pushed wave fronts:

yellow ball "Interplay between morphology and competition in two-dimensional colony expansion,"

Daniel Swartz, Hyunseok Lee, Kardar & Korolev, PRE 108, L032301 (2023). (off-line)