Simulation of cell budding and binary fission: A preliminary study using molecular dynamics and agent-based model

Simulation of cell asexual reproduction is performed through two different mechanisms in this work. The first is budding and the second is binary fission. These two mechanisms have different steps in producing the offspring. Budding will produce smaller size of offspring, while binary fission will produce offspring with the same size as its parent. Cell requires to grow until it reaches its mature state and then it can reproduce an offspring through one of the two mechanisms. There is also reproduction period after a cell is mature, which is the time it repeats the reproduction process. There are only two force types are considered, which are normal force as the repulsive force and a gravitational-like force as the attractive force. The former force holds for r_ij < R_i + R_j, while the later force holds r_ij ≥ R_i + R_j, where rij is distance between center of two spherical cells and R_i is radius of cell i. Cell form is simplified as spherical granular particle. As initial condition at time t = 0 three different number of cell N₀ = 1, 2, 4 are used for both asexual reproduction mechanisms. It is observed for N₀ > 1 that two or more clusters of cells are collapsing to produce single cluster. Number of cells N as function of time t for binary fission shows a smooth curve compared to budding which produce a step-like curve. It is due to mature time of the offspring, which is different in the two mechanisms. Average colony radius R as function of time t for both mechanisms do not show a distinct feature