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We propose a general parametrizable model to capture the dynamic interactionamong bacteria in the formation of micro-colonies. micro-colonies represent thefirst social step towards the formation of structured multicellular communitiesknown as bacterial biofilms, which protect the bacteria against antimicrobials.In our model, bacteria can form links in the form of intercellular adhesins(such as polysaccharides) to collaborate in the production of resources thatare fundamental to protect them against antimicrobials. Since maintaining alink can be costly, we assume that each bacterium forms and maintains a linkonly if the benefit received from the link is larger than the cost, and weformalize the interaction among bacteria as a dynamic network formation game.We rigorously characterize some of the key properties of the network evolutiondepending on the parameters of the system. In particular, we derive theparameters under which it is guaranteed that all bacteria will joinmicro-colonies and the parameters under which it is guaranteed that somebacteria will not join micro-colonies. Importantly, our study does not onlycharacterize the properties of networks emerging in equilibrium, but it alsoprovides important insights on how the network dynamically evolves and on howthe formation history impacts the emerging networks in equilibrium. Thisanalysis can be used to develop methods to influence on- the-fly the evolutionof the network, and such methods can be useful to treat or preventbiofilm-related diseases.

A Dynamic Network Formation Model for Understanding Bacterial Self-Organization into Micro-Colonies