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. 1971 Oct;108(1):105–110. doi: 10.1128/jb.108.1.105-110.1971

Ribosome Patterns in Escherichia coli Growing at Various Rates

Frederick Varricchio a,1, Roger Monier a
PMCID: PMC247038  PMID: 5001192

Abstract

The distribution of ribosomes, 30 and 50S subunits and polysomes, at three different growth rates of Escherichia coli strains B and K-12 has been studied. The usual percentage of subunits is about 20%. However, at the lowest growth rate (μ = generations/hour), μ = 0.45 at 30C, the proportion of subunits is about 30%. An exceptional situation exists in K-12 strains growing at maximum growth rate, μ = 1.35, where the percentage of subunits is 45%. Several points of control over ribosome production are thus indicated. It is suggested that “subunit pool” is essentially a reserve. Furthermore, the polysome content when related to deoxyribonucleic acid content varies directly with the growth rate, which indicates the average efficiency of polysomes in protein synthesis does not vary over the range of growth rates tested.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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