Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 17: Physics of Physarum polycephalum and Other Slime Molds - Joint Focus Session (BP/DY) organized by Hans-Günther Döbereiner

DY 17.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 11:15–11:30, SCH A251

Control of Pattern Formation in Dictyostelium discoideum — •Torsten Eckstein, Albert Bae, Vladimir Zykov, Eberhard Bodenschatz, and Azam Gholami — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany

We performed experiments to study pattern formation in colonies of Dictyostelium discoideum cells under the influence of a regular array of pillars in a petri dish.

We observed a new phenomenon: In the presence of caffeine, synchronized circular waves center on the pillars and dominate the wave dynamics. In a periodic arrangement of pillars, this results in regular macroscopic streaming patterns reminiscent of Voronoi domains centered around the pillars. The shape of these Voronoi domains is based on the underlying shape of the array of pillars. Thus, the macroscopic pattern can be tuned by changing the geometry of the array. We have shown that this phenomenon is found for different geometries, like a rectangular grid of pillars, a hexagonal grid of pillars and long walls as obstacles. It seems the defining characteristic in the system is the presence of a wall. Indeed, the phenomenon persists for pillars of a small height and shallow holes. Additionally, we varied the initial starvation times of the cells, finding that cells stream to the pillars for starvation times from 40 minutes to 7 hours. However, for starvation times of at least 5 hours the macroscopic pattern was lost.