Adenylate pool sizes and succinate dehydrogenase activity increase continuously throughout the cell cycle ofEscherichia coli

Abstract

In synchronous cultures of Escherichia coli, the pool sizes of ATP and ADP increase continuously, probably exponentially, such that the ATP/ADP ratio is invariant during the cell cycle. Resolution of cells from an exponentially growing culture into size, and thus age, classes reveals no significant variation in succinate dehydrogenase activity during the cell cycle. These data reinforce earlier findings that respiratory metabolism in the E. coli cell cycle is not manifestly periodic.