Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni plays a significant role in human health, food production, and veterinary practice. Biofilm formation is a likely mechanism explaining the survival of C. jejuni in seemingly unfavourable environments, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We propose a mathematical model to unify various observations regarding C. jejuni biofilm formation. Specifically, we present a cellular automaton with stochastic dynamics that describes both the probability of biofilm initiation and its subsequent growth. Our model incorporates fundamental processes such as cell rearrangement, diffusion of chemical compounds, accumulation of extracellular material, cell growth, lysis, and deactivation due to nutrient scarcity. The model predicts an optimal nutrient concentration that enhances population survival, revealing a trade-off where higher nutrient levels may harm individual cells but benefit the overall population. Our results suggest that the lower biofilm accumulation observed experimentally in aerobic conditions compared to microaerobic conditions may be due to a reduced surface invasion probability of individual cells. However, cells that do manage to invade can generate microcolonies of a similar size under both aerobic and microaerobic conditions. These findings provide new insights into the survival probability and size of C. jejuni biofilms, suggesting potential targets for controlling its biofilm formation in various environments.