Fig. 2.

Cell morphology affects self-organization in simulations of exponential biofilm growth. (A) Sections of 2D biofilms grown from 1:1 mixtures of red- and blue-labeled strains form different spatial patterns depending on whether the strains have a coccal (short, S) or rod-like (long, L) morphology. (B) Volume-weighted histograms of cell $z$ coordinates ($P(z)$) show that SL mixtures develop a layered structure in both 2D and 3D colonies, with S cells sitting above L cells. In SS and LL control simulations, this layering is absent. (C) Three-dimensional simulations, in which cell positions and orientations are no longer confined to the $xz$ plane, produce spatial patterns similar to those shown in 2D. There were 20 simulations per case.