Stoichiometric regulation of immune responses in primary producers

All organisms require carbon and nutrients such as nitrogen for their growth and reproduction. In the presence of pathogens, host defense has been shown to increase with enhanced nutrient availability. Thus, availability of nitrogen may stimulate a host by enhancing its growth as well as immunity response. However, at the same time, nutrient availability may promote infection as higher host growth trades-off with reduced resistance as well as through enhanced pathogen performance. We explore the role of nitrogen availability on infection dynamics of a primary producer host and its pathogen using a stoichiometry-based disease model. Specifically, we test how changes in nitrogen investments in host immune response will alter host biomass build-up and pathogen infection rates.