Table 2.

DNA, RNA and protein contents reported for M. bovis BCG and M. tuberculosis H37Ra.

Property	M. tuberculosis H37Rv*	M. bovis BCG† (Glaxo)	M. bovis BCG‡
Generation time (h)	2.40	2.40	23.10	69.30
DNA (fg/cell)	6.90§	6.90§	6.73¶	5.35¶
RNA (fg/cell)	232	13.3	9.96	2.24
Protein (fg/cell)	294	156.00	72.10	37.70

^*Youmans and Youmans (1968). Cells were grown as a pellicle.

^†Winder and Rooney (1970). Cells were grown in liquid culture.

^‡Beste et al. (2005). Cells were grown in a chemostat.

^§Values DNA, RNA and protein were calculated on the basis of one genome is equal to 4.79 fg and 1.45 genome per population.

^¶Values DNA, RNA and protein were calculated on the basis of 1.40 and 1.10 genomes per population-average cell respectively for faster and slower growth rates.