Bacterial growth in space flight: logistic growth curve parameters for Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis.
Previous investigations have reported that bacterial suspension cultures grow to higher stationary concentrations in space flight than on Earth; however, none of these investigations included extensive ground controls under varied inertial conditions. This study includes extensive controls and cell-growth data taken at several times during lag phase, log phase, and stationary phase of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The Marquardt-Levenberg, least-squares fitting algorithm was used to calculate kinetic growth parameters from the logistic bacterial growth equations for space-flight and control growth curves. Space-flight cultures grew to higher stationary-phase concentrations and had shorter lag-phase durations. Also, evidence was found for increased exponential growth rate in space.
Kacena
M A
MA
University of Colorado, Engineering Center, Boulder, CO 80309-0429, USA.
Merrell
G A
GA
Manfredi
B
B
Smith
E E
EE
Klaus
D M
DM
Todd
P
P
D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000254:growth & development*; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003470:Culture Media; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000254:growth & development*; D013026:Space Flight; D014893:Weightlessness
D003470:Culture Media