A transient isotopic labeling methodology for 13C metabolic flux analysis of photoautotrophic microorganisms

A transient 13C metabolic flux analysis methodology to measure central carbon fluxes in purely photoautotrophic systems under metabolic steady-state is formulated. A mathematical framework of 13C isotopomer balances is used to assess various experimental requirements of the problem, including intracellular metabolite concentration measurements and photobioreactor operation.