Summary: When cultures of Salmonella typhimurium undergoing balanced growth are shifted from one medium to another, a definite pattern of rate changes is observed. Shifts from a low to a high growth rate result in a strict succession of events: RNA synthesis is immediately affected and its rate rapidly increases to that characteristic of the new medium; the increase in optical density shows a lag of a few minutes before the new rate is attained; DNA synthesis and cell division, on the other hand, continue at the old rate for appreciable periods of time and then abruptly shift to the new rates. The times at which these shifts take place are, at 37°, invariably 20 and 70 min., regardless of the actual growth rates before and after the shift. This rate maintenance effect on DNA synthesis and cell division is discussed in terms of specific rate-controlling mechanisms.
SchaechterM., MaaløeO., KjeldgaardN.O.1959; Dependency on medium and temperature of cell size and chemical composition during balanced growth of 8almonella typhimu.rium. J. gen.Microbiol 19:592
VogelH.J.1957; Repression and induction as control mechanisms of enzyme biogenesis: the ‘adaptive’ formation of acetylornithase. In Chemical Basis of Heredity p. 276 Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.;