The Growth Curve of Cells

The bacteria will grow if they are given some nutrition. This graph shows the growth
curve of bacteria cells. The line on the graph illustrates the relationship between Time
(hours) of Cells for growing until death and the total of viable cells/ml. There are no cells
in the initial time because the bacteria need a time to adapt with the surrounding. This
condition is known as log phase which nutrition is not eaten by the bacteria. Suddenly, the
viable cells increase of 1 cells/ml. It means that the bacteria start to consume the nutrition
and pass the adaptation time. In 9 hours, it remains constant at 1 cells/ml. It is called a lag
phase. It is the phase that the quantity of nutrition is more than the bacteria. One hour
later, we see a small increase of 2 viable cells/ml. This upward trend continues in 18

hours, the viable cells go up substantially to 6 cells/ml. In biotech, this phase is named as
exponential phase. There are more bacteria start to grow and consume the nutrition. In 22
hours, it reaches a peak of 9 cells/ml. The exponential phase, the increase of cells, is
change to stationery phase. In this phase, the viable cells also remain constant at 6 cells/ml
and it is stand until 31 hours. It because of the bacteria equal the nutrition. In 36 hours, the
viable cells fall by 3 cells/ml. It represents a decrease to the level of 18 hours. It is no
wonder because the bacteria compete each other to get their nutrition. Consequently, some
of them are death. In 42 hours, the cells drop to 1 cells/ml. The nutrition is less than the
bacteria. It is called as death phase. By studying this graph, we can predict this downward
trend to continue in the next hours.