Macromolecule synthesis in Escherichia coli BB under various growth conditions.

The kinetic behavior of the macromolecule synthesis of Escherichia coli during balanced growth in various media at different temperatures as investigated. The results indicate that macromolecule contents per cell can be expressed as exponential functions of the specific growth rate at a given temperature. It was shown that the content per cell at the zero growth rate was constant in each macromolecule component, irrespective of the growth temperature. The rate of ribonucleic acid (RNA) synthesis per unit weight of deoxyribonucleic acid and that of protein synthesis per unit weight of RNA were taken as efficiencies of RNA and protein synthesis, respectively; both of them were found to be dependent on the growth rate and temperature. The efficiency of RNA synthesis was found to be very high at a high growth rate, whereas that of protein synthesis was found to decrease above certain growth rate. At the same growth rate, an increase in the growth temperature resulted in a decrease in the efficiency of RNA synthesis but an increase in that of protein synthesis.