Abstract

Environmental bioprocess modeling has proven as a very useful tool for analysis of natural and man-made ecosystems. Attributing specific redox reactions to specific microbial groups allows for investigating a complex microbial community as the sum of the different reactions in the system. Inclusion of the microbial redox reactions in bioreactor systems and by including thermodynamic equilibria, phase transfer reactions, and spatial distribution of reactions allows for establishment of an overall system description. This kind of models have been used for analysis of numerous wastewater treatment related processes like the activated sludge process, anaerobic digestion, and biofilm processes. In recent years metaproteogenomic methods have become available to investigate microbial ecosystems. To which extent these methods and the corresponding modeling tools are of interest for research in the field of applied environmental microbiology will be the topic of this presentation. First I will present an overview of recent modeling efforts in our research group, and based on that experience I will discuss the potential role of metaproteogenomic tools in the field of environmental microbiology.