Fig. 2: Simulations of growing colonies.

a Simulation snapshots showing colony formation. b Confocal section of a microcolony of fluorescently labeled N. gonorrhoeae. Scale bar: 5 μm. c The colony radii increase exponentially with time during the simulations. Growth and division are switched off before the end of the simulation. Inset: the number of cells increases exponentially with time and simulation results agree with an analytical expression.