PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fiona Wanjiku Moejes
AU  - Ovidiu Popa
AU  - Antonella Succurro
AU  - Julie Maguire
AU  - Oliver Ebenhöh
TI  - Dynamics of the bacterial community associated with <em>Phaeodactylum tricornutum</em> cultures
AID  - 10.1101/077768
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 077768
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/14/077768.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/14/077768.full
AB  - The pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a model organism able to synthesise industrially-relevant molecules. Large-scale monocultures are prone to bio-contamination, however, little is known about the identity of the invading organisms. To gain insight into the bacterial community associated with diatoms, we translated the complexity of a natural system into reproducible experiments where we investigated the microbiome of P. tricornutum cultures. The results revealed a dynamic bacterial community that changed over time and in differing media conditions. We propose a network of putative interactions between P. tricornutum and the main bacterial factions, which is translated into a set of ordinary differential equations constituting a computational dynamic model. The proposed mathematical model is able to capture the population dynamics, further supporting the hypothesised interactions. The interdisciplinary approach implemented provides a framework for understanding the dynamics of diatom-associated microbial communities, and provides a foundation for further systematic investigations of host-microbe interactions.