MCB 3020C Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Relative Growth Rate, Generation Time, Cell Wall
Document Summary
Growth is defined as the orderly increase of all the major chemical constituents of an organism. And increase in mass does not necessarily mean growth is occurring: increase in mass may just be due to the accumulation of cellular reserve material, you would need an increase in all cellular constituents to be considered growth. Growth normally results in cellular replication: exception: coenxytic (multinucleated organisms) Multicellular organism cellular multiplication results in an increase in size of the organism. Unicellular organism cellular multiplication results in an increase in the number of organisms. Ultimate goal of microbial cells- to grow & divide. Metabolism the sum of all the chemical reactions in the cell. Biosynthesis- synthesis of small molecules (building blocks, coenzymes, vitamins, etc) Polymerization reactions that make the macromolecules: *** most important, as these are synthesized and accumulated in the cell, they are assembled into structures. The cell then grows in size and eventually divides. The most common means of unicellular microbial reproduction.
