Flux-Balance Based Modeling of Biofilm Communities

Abstract

Models of microbial community dynamics generally rely on a sub-scale model for microbial metabolisms. In systems such as distributed multispecies communities like biofilms, where it is not reasonable to simplify to a small number of limiting substrates, tracking the large number of active metabolites likely requires measurement or estimation of large numbers of kinetic and regulatory parameters. Alternatively, a largely kinetics-free methodology is proposed combining cellular level constrained, steady state metabolic flux analysis with macro scale microbial community models. The methodology easily allows coupling of macroscale information, including measurement data, with cell-scale metabolism. Illustrative examples are included.