Microbial growth-yield parameters are usually analyzed in terms of an overall, phenomenological

description, first suggested by Pirt . He pro-posed that for its survival a microbial cell must carry out a
number of processes unrelated to growth. To generate the energy (ATP) required for these processes,
'extra' catabolism at a rate independent of the growth rate is needed; this was referred to as (growth-
rate-independent) 'maintenance' catabolism. The extra substrate consumption connected with such
maintenance catabolism was shown to affect growth yields so that they become growth-rate-
dependent. This notion, which has been confirmed experimentally modified the concept of Monod who
had introduced growth yield as a biological constant. Although Pirt's description allowed a fruitful
rationalization of microbial yield studies, research during the past 10 years has led to several
observations it cannot account for. Two examples are: (i) the differences between the experimentally
obtained maximal (i.e., corrected for growth rate-independent maintenance) growth yields of microbes
and the theoretical yields that can be calculated from known biochemical pathways [5] and, (ii) the
occurrence of overflow metabolism. Phenomenological, the deficit in maximal growth yield can be
accommodated in Pirt’s analysis by postulating that the maintenance requirements are growth rate-
dependent. However, with this modification this method of Describing growth becomes even more
phenomenological. It just provides arithmetic expressions between parameters (growth rate-dependent
maintenance coefficient and growth rate-independent Maintenance coefficient) that can be adjusted so
as to make the expressions fit the results of any Particular yield study. Although it thus serves the
Important purpose of permitting the summary of the results of growth experiments in terms of two
Parameters only, thereby facilitating a comparison of different growth studies, it cannot explain the
Characteristics of a certain growth experiment in Terms of the molecular details of the underlying
Biochemical and biophysical mechanisms. The need for a description of microbial growth that enables
the prediction of a change in growth yield caused by a certain change in stoichiometry, activity or Kinetic
characteristics of one of the enzymes involved in growth, has become more pressing in Recent years,
particularly in applied areas of mi-Cryobiology . Such a refined description Should establish a link
between yield studies and Biochemical/biophysical research at the level of Isolated enzymes or
subcellular particles. In bioenergetics a similar need for descriptions Of systems of enzymes that would
take into account The mechanistic structure of the system has arisen. To satisfy that need ‘mosaic non-
equilibrium thermodynamics’ (MNET) has been developed ,and has turned out to be applicable to a
Number of energy-transducing systems with various degrees of complexity, correctly predicting the
Effect of changes in activity of the elemental Processes that characterized the mechanistic structure of
the system (such as proton pumping, ,proton leakage), on macroscopically observable Parameters such
as pH gradient , proton flux oxidation rate and rate of ATP synthesis The description has also proved
useful in extracting information concerning the molecular details Of the energy transducing pathway
from measurements of macroscopic parameters As Both bioenergetics and microbiology concern the
Metabolic symbiosis of a number of independent (enzyme-catalyzed) processes, it seemed likely that An
MNET description of microbial growth would Prove equally informative. Moreover, microbial Growth
can be considered to be itself an energy-Transducing system and as such it would be well Positioned in
the sequence of biological energy-

Transducing systems to which MNET has been Applied. Until now, this approach, beginning with the
single energy-transducing enzyme bacteriorhodopsin reconstituted into liposomes and leading along to
oxidative phosphorylation in Sub mitochondrial particles and intact Mitochondria has led to the
description of Gluconeogenesis in rat liver cells. The description of microbial growth extends these
descriptions in the sense that it links anabolism to growth. For these two reasons we have extended
MNET to Provide a description of microbial growth.