Question

draw and completely label the standard bacterial growth curve?

Answer 1

A typical bacterial growth curve is as shown below:

Different phases or stages of a typical bacterial growth curve are:

• Lag Phase:
  • In this stage, cells are metabolically inactive and there is no increase in number of bacterial cells (cells however increase in size)
• Exponential Phase
  • This stage is also called as log phase and the bacterial cell population increases exponentially during this stage
• Stationary Phase:
  • ?This phase is depicted as plateau formation in the graph and rate of cell division and cell death is roughly equal.
• Death Phase:
  • ?In this phase, the death of cells exceeds the rate of formation of new bacterial cells due to resource depletion and there is an exponential decrease in bacterial population.