Mathematical Modeling Is Unraveling the Metabolism of Photosynthetic Organisms to Drive Novel Culturing

Abstract

Currently, our understanding of microalgae metabolism has been increasing due to the combination of experimental and computational tools developed for different kinds of photosynthetic microorganisms. The groundbreaking discoveries were enabled by high-throughput experiments and multi-scale modeling approaches for marine and freshwater microalgae, resulting in better understanding of single organisms and ecosystems. By connecting outcomes of the mathematical tools with big-scale datasets we are laying down the foundation for whole ecosystems modeling using environmentally relevant parameters. The revision of the state-of-the-art tools to understand the metabolism will facilitate and inform decisions for ecosystem restoration and production of commodities using light-driven biotechnology.