You are working with bacteria under conditions where they ha

You are working with bacteria under conditions where they have optimal growth and a 35 minute generation time. What is the growth rate for the bacteria under these conditions? If you grow these bacteria for 6 hours, how many generations have passed? If you grow these bacteria for 25 generations, how much time has passed?

Solution

a) If generation time is 35 minutes, it means it gets double in 35 minutes.

Therefore, the growth rate in per hour:

Bacteria double in 35 minutes = 35/60 hour = 0.58 hour

Now, in 0.58 hour number of bacteria = 2

In 1 hour = 2 x 1/0.58 = 2/0.58 = 3.45 bacteria

Therefore, the growth rate is 3.45/ hour

b) Generation time G = t/n where t is total time till n generations and n is the number of generations.

0.58 = 6 / n

n = 6/0.58 = 10.34 generations 10 generations

c) for 25 generations

t = G xn = 0.58 x 25 = 14.5 hours