PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR MICROBIOLOGY TEST 2

Example 1:
What is the generation time of a bacterial population that increases from 10,000
cells to 10,000,000 cells in four hours of growth?

G= t/ 3.3logb/B
G= 240 minutes/ 3.3log107/104
G=240 mins/3.3 x3
G= 24 mins
Example 2:
If at time 0 you had 10 million cells and two hours later had 40 million cells, what is the generation
time?
GT= 120/ log(40 million/ 10 million) x 3.3
GT = 120/ log(4/1) x 3.3
GT= 120/0.6x 3.3
GT= 120/1.98( round off to become 2)
GT= 120/2
=60 mins/gen
Example 3:
If you have a generation time of 20 minutes, if you started with 5 cells, how many cells would you
have in 200 minutes
Ans:
200/20
= 10

Example 4:
A culture contains 17 x 28 cells. How many cells did that culture contain six generations earlier?
Ans: 17x28
8-6=17x22
40x4
=160

Example 5:
You have a culture with 19 cells in it. The culture goes through three generations. How many cells
are now in the culture (assume that the culture is in exponential phase throughout the experiment,
 only viable cells are being measured and are of any concern to you, and that three generations
implies three rounds of replication).
19 x 3= 57

Example 6:
Starting with 10 bacteria, a doubling time of 30 minutes, and given exponential growth, how many
bacteria will you have after 3000 minutes (a little over 2 days) of continuous exponential growth?

Example 8:
Escherichia coli has a doubling time of 20 minutes. If there are 5 cells at the beginning of the
experiment, how many will there be in 3 hours?
2ens

Example 7:
An otherwise typical bacterial cell increases from one cell to 256 cells in 10 hours. What is the
generation time of this organism?
75.47mins/gen

Example 9

You perform a serial dilution and determine that the original number of cells in your sample was
12,000. How many bacteria will be present in 12 hours if the generation time is 15 minutes (assume
unlimited food and clean environment)?

Example 10
6
You determine that a coconut cream pie has 3 million (3 x 10 ) Staph. aureus cells in it. You estimate
that the food preparer did not wash his hands and probably inoculated the cream with 500 Staph.
aureus. He also forgot to refrigerate it. If the pie was made 6 hours ago, how many generations have
occurred? How long is each generation?

Example 11

Using the generation time from problem 2, how many bacteria would be present after 8 hours at
room temperature?

Example 12
Let’s say that flesh eating Strep. pyogenes divides every 10 minutes at body temperature. You fall
down and scrape your knee and get infected with 5 Strep. pyogenes cells. After 4 hours, without
medical intervention, how many bacteria will be ravaging your body? Let’s say that for every 1
million bacteria, a centimeter of flesh is consumed. After 4 hours, how much tissue would be lost?
Are you still alive and would you want to be?