Modeling Population Fluctuations in Nutrient Limited Environments (Rapid Fire)

Trichodesmium erythraeum, a colony forming filamentous cyanobacteria, is an integral part of the global nitrogen cycle; it is estimated that T. erythraeum fixes 42% of the biologically reduced nitrogen globally. Unfortunately, its metabolism and interactions with the environment and other marine organisms is poorly understood despite its ubiquitous presence in the ocean (T. erythraeum blooms can be so large that they can be seen from space). Detailed knowledge of this organism can provide insight into how nitrogen is made available in the ocean and how and why large blooms occur. Therefore, we have constructed a genome scale metabolic model of T. erythraeum which has been used to predict metabolic fluxes in a single cell. We will also present methods which allow this model to be extended to multicellular trichomes and colonies.