Investigating the Unique Ability of To Fix Carbon and Nitrogen Simultaneously Using MiMoSA.

The open ocean is an extremely competitive environment, partially due to the dearth of nutrients. Trichodesmium erythraeum, a marine diazotrophic cyanobacterium, is a keystone species in the ocean due to its ability to fix nitrogen and leak 30 to 50% into the surrounding environment, providing a valuable source of a necessary macronutrient to other species. While there are other diazotrophic cyanobacteria that play an important role in the marine nitrogen cycle, is unique in its ability to fix both carbon and nitrogen simultaneously during the day without the use of specialized cells called heterocysts to protect nitrogenase from oxygen.

Multiscale Multiobjective Systems Analysis (MiMoSA): an advanced metabolic modeling framework for complex systems.

In natural environments, cells live in complex communities and experience a high degree of heterogeneity internally and in the environment. Even in 'ideal' laboratory environments, cells can experience a high degree of heterogeneity in their environments. Unfortunately, most of the metabolic modeling approaches that are currently used assume ideal conditions and that each cell is identical, limiting their application to pure cultures in well-mixed vessels.