What is bacterial kinetics?

Answer 1

The growth of microorganisms reproducing by binary fission can be plotted as the logarithm of the number of viable cells versus the incubation time. The resulting curve has four distinct phases and its mathamatical expression are called bacterial or microbial kinetics. Lag Phase When microorganisms are introduced into fresh culture medium, usually no immediate increase in cell number occurs, and therefore this period is called the lag phase.Exponential Phase During the exponential or log phase, microorganisms are growing and dividing at the maximal rate possible given their genetic potential, the nature of the medium, and the conditions under which they are growing. Stationary Phase Eventually population growth ceases and the growth curve becomes horizontal. This stationary phase usually is attained by bacteria at a population level of around 109 cells per ml. Death Phase Detrimental environmental changes like nutrient deprivation and the buildup of toxic wastes lead to the decline in the number of viable cells characteristic of the death phase. The death of a microbial population, like its growth during the exponential phase, is usually logarithmic During the exponential phase each microorganism is dividing at constant rate. Thus the population will double in during the specific length of time called the generation time or doubling time These observations can be expressed as equations for thegeneration time. Let No the initial population number Nt the population at time t n the number of generations in time t Then Nt = No multiply 2n