Dynamic model of flexible phytoplankton nutrient uptake.

ABSTRACT: The metabolic machinery of marine microbes can be remarkably plastic, allowing organisms to persist under extreme nutrient limitation. With some exceptions, most theoretical approaches to nutrient uptake in phytoplankton are largely dominated by the classic Michaelis-Menten (MM) uptake functional form, whose constant parameters cannot account for the observed plasticity in the uptake apparatus. Following seminal ideas by earlier researchers, we propose a simple cell-level model based on a dynamic view of the uptake process whereby the cell can regulate the synthesis of uptake proteins in response to changes in both internal and external nutrient concentrations. In our flexible approach, the maximum uptake rate and nutrient affinity increase monotonically as the external nutrient concentrat

SUBMITTER: Bonachela JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3251133 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature