Introductory Microbiology

Microbial growth

• Growth is defined as an orderly increase in cellular components. However, an increase in mass alone need not reflect growth since microorganisms sometimes can accumulate mass without a concurrent increase in cells number. To distinguish orderly, growth form from disorderly growth, the term balanced growth has been used. Campbell defined balanced growth, is the doubling of every biochemical unit of the cells within the time period of a single division without a change in the rate of growth.