Microbial Growth Microbial Growth Microbial Growth Microbial growth is usually studied as a population not an individual. Individual cells divide in a process called binary fission where two daughter cells arise from a single cell. The daughter cells are indentical except for the occassional mutation. The time between divisions is called generation time or the doubling time since this is the time for the population to double. These can range from minutes to days depending on the species of bacteria.
Growth rate is the change in cell number or mass per unit time.
A population doubles each generation is exponential growth. We also know that the slope of the semilog line equals 0.301 divided by the generation time. Batch culture of bacteria Culturing bacteria in a Erlenmeyer flask where you simply inoculate it and let the bacteria grow. There are 4 phases of growth in batch culture. A newly inoculated culture usually does not begin growing immediately but rather after of period of no growth which is referred to as the lag phase .