Modelling of the normal elastic dissipative interaction of a S. aureus bacterium

Abstract

Prokaryotic bacteria are a widespread group of organisms on Earth. Bacteria inhabit practically all environments where some liquid water is present. Bacteria form structures such as biofilms and play a significant role in infections in the human body. In order to understand the behaviour of bacteria systems it is important to understand the behaviour of a single bacterium first. A bacterium is considered as an active particle and the numerical task of describing the interaction of a bacterium with a substrate is solved by applying the discrete element method. One of the factors influencing the stability of a biofilm structure are adhesion forces which allow keeping the bacteria system sticked together. The present theoretical investigation gives a characterisation of the influence of adhesion on a bacterium. The adhesion force is described by the van der Waals force by applying a recently developed adhesive-dissipative model. The investigation presents the theoretical behaviour of the bacterium interaction while different models such as DMT and DLVO are used. Obtained results show the approach and deformation process of an adhesive-dissipative bacterium by presenting force displacement diagrams.