Why would it be sometimes beneficial for cells to increase metabolism without any growth?
aquahare asked:
The growth rate for E. coli is about the same when it is grown both in the presence of glucose and in the absense of glucose. However, there seems to be differences in gene expression under the two conditions. When the cell is grown with glucose present, the nrd genes are repressed, as normally, their expression is associated with anaerobic growth and subsequently slower metabolism. But since the growth rates with or without glucose present doesn’t seem to be that different, why would it be beneficial for the cell to increase its metabolism without growth?
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The growth rate for E. coli is about the same when it is grown both in the presence of glucose and in the absense of glucose. However, there seems to be differences in gene expression under the two conditions. When the cell is grown with glucose present, the nrd genes are repressed, as normally, their expression is associated with anaerobic growth and subsequently slower metabolism. But since the growth rates with or without glucose present doesn’t seem to be that different, why would it be beneficial for the cell to increase its metabolism without growth?
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One Response to “Why would it be sometimes beneficial for cells to increase metabolism without any growth?”
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October 9th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Because if it grows, its metabolic needs increase. Its purpose for increasing metabolism may be to generate more ATP (energy) for a particular process. But if it grew in size, that would eat into the amount of extra energy produced that would be available for whatever that original need was.