Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 22: Pattern Formation

DY 22.7: Vortrag

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 11:15–11:30, ZEU/0118

Travelling waves of invasion in ecological communities with phenotypic variation — •Pierre A. Haas — Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems — Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics — Center for Systems Biology Dresden

Bacterial populations can switch to slowly growing “persister” subpopulations that are resilient to competition. Here, I will present a minimal model for the effect of this phenotypic variation on the spatial competition of two species. One of these species switches, both randomly and in response to the other, competitor species, to such a persister phenotype. One would expect this phenotypic switching to slow down the travelling wave by which the competitors invade the first species.
Combining exact results and numerical calculations, I will show that, surprisingly, this expectation does not hold true: phenotypic switching does not affect the speed of this wave. Somewhat conversely, I will demonstrate that phenotypic switching can speed up the reverse wave by which this species invades the competitors. This suggests that, counterintuitively, persisters can be an offensive, rather than defensive ecological strategy.

Keywords: Travelling-wave solutions; Theoretical ecology; Phenotypic switching