Paper detail

Pattern formation through genetic drift at expanding population fronts

We investigate the nature of genetic drift acting at the leading edge of range expansions, building on recent results in [Hallatschek et al., Proc.\ Natl.\ Acad.\ Sci., \textbf{104}(50): 19926 - 19930 (2007)]. A well mixed population of two fluorescently labeled microbial species is grown in a circular geometry. As the population expands, a coarsening process driven by genetic drift gives rise to sectoring patterns with fractal boundaries, which show a non-trivial asymptotic distribution. Using simplified lattice based Monte Carlo simulations as a generic caricature of the above experiment, we present detailed numerical results to establish a model for sector boundaries as time changed Brownian motions. This is used to derive a general one-to-one mapping of sector statistics between circular and linear geometries, which leads to a full understanding of the sectoring patterns in terms of annihilating diffusions.