TRAVELING WAVES AND PATTERN-FORMATION IN A MODEL FOR FUNGAL DEVELOPMENT

Under a variety of conditions, the hyphal density within the expanding outer edge of growing fungal mycelia can be spatially heterogeneous o r nearly uniform. We conduct an analysis of a system of reaction-diffu sion equations used to model the growth of fungal mycelia and the subs equent development of macroscopic patterns produced by differing hypha l and hence biomass densities. Both local and global results are obtai ned using analytical and numerical techniques. The emphasis is on qual itative results, including the effects of changes in parameter values on the structure of the solution set.