Growth Of Bacterial Culture

The study of the growth of bacterial cultures does not constitutea specialized subject or branch of research: it is the basic

method of Microbiology. It would be a foolish enterprise, anddoomed to failure, to attempt reviewing briefly a "subject"

which covers actually our whole discipline. Unless, of course, weconsidered the formal laws of growth for their own sake, an approachwhich has repeatedly proved sterile. In the present reviewwe shall consider bacterial growth as a method for the study of

bacterial physiology and biochemistry. More precisely, we shall concern ourselves with the quantitative aspects of the method,

with the interpretation of quantitative data referring to bacterialgrowth. 

1. lag phase: growth rate null.

2. acceleration phase: growth rate increases.

3. exponential phase: growth rate constant.

4. retardation phase: growth rate decreases.

5. stationary phase: growth rate null.

6. phase of decline: growth rate negative.