Question

Which equation best describe the bacterial population growth?

Answer 1

n the laboratory, under favorable conditions, a growing bacterial population doubles at regular intervals. Growth is by geometric progression: 1, 2, 4, 8, etc. or 20, 21, 22, 23.........2n (where n = the number of generations). This is called exponential growth. In reality, exponential growth is only part of the bacterial life cycle, and not representative of the normal pattern of growth of bacteria in Nature.

When a fresh medium is inoculated with a given number of cells, and the population growth is monitored over a period of time, plotting the data will yield a typical bacterial growth curve (Figure 3 below).