Individual‐based and stochastic modeling of cell population dynamics considering substrate dependency

In this article, we propose an individual‐based and stochastic modeling approach that is capable of describing the bacterial cell population dynamics during a batch culture. All stochastic nature inherent in intracellular molecular level reactions and cell division processes were considered in a single model framework by embedding a sub‐model describing individual cell's growth kinetics in a discrete event simulation algorithm. The resultant unique feature of the model is that the effects of the stochasticities on the cell population dynamics can be investigated for different substrate‐dependent cell growth kinetics. When Monod kinetics was used as the sub‐model, the stochasticities only slightly affected the cell mass increase and substrate consumption profiles during the batch culture although they were still important in describing the changes of cell population distributions. When Andrews substrate inhibition kinetics was used, however, it was revealed that the overall cell population dynamics could be seriously influenced by the stochasticities. Under a critical initial substrate level, the cell population could proliferate against the substrate inhibition only when the stochasticities were considered. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 891–899. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.