Gradients in individual cell growth rates emerge in our simulated biofilms during growth.

<p>Cell growth rate distributions for the spread and rounded aggregates after 480 h of growth: (a) <i>θ</i> = 5°, <i>ρ</i> = 0.0 cell <i>μ</i>m⁻¹; (b) <i>θ</i> = 5°, <i>ρ</i> = 0.01 cell <i>μ</i>m⁻¹; (c) <i>θ</i> = 5°, <i>ρ</i> = 0.5 cell <i>μ</i>m⁻¹; (d) <i>θ</i> = 180°, <i>ρ</i> = 0.0 cell <i>μ</i>m⁻¹; (e) <i>θ</i> = 180°, <i>ρ</i> = 0.01 cell <i>μ</i>m⁻¹; (f) <i>θ</i> = 180°, <i>ρ</i> = 0.5 cell <i>μ</i>m⁻¹. These distributions correspond to the configurations in Figs <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0149683#pone.0149683.g002" target="_blank">2</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0149683#pone.0149683.g004" target="_blank">4</a>. Note that the gradient in cell growth rate is so large that a log scale is used for visualisation purposes. The green dashed lines represents an approximate boundary between the aggregate cells and the surrounding competing strain.