Synchronous growth of Escherichia coli in a complex medium

Synchronous division of Escherichia coli K12 Hfr Ca 3000 met- thi- thy- in a complex medium has been obtained using stationary- phase synchrony. As many as five synchronous cell cycles have been followed using a 1:60 dilution. It was also shown that balanced growth was obtained in at least three cell cycles. Decreasing the inoculum size resulted in a shorter lag, less variation in the generation times and a higher final synchronous cell density up to an optimum dilution. The concept of an inflection point has been defined, and its relationship to final synchronous cell density has been established. The phenomenon of a division clock in bacteria has been investigated.