Abstract
Bacteria can vary their enzymic composition markedly when grown in different conditions. In particular, specific enzymes required to utilize a given carbon or nitrogen source are usually only present when they are essential for growth. Such enzymes are known as inducible. In contrast, some enzymes that are normally present in actively growing cells may under certain conditions, especially if the product of their reaction(s) is present in excess in the growth media, be absent or present only in barely detectable amounts. Such enzymes are known as repressible. Naturally certain enzymes are present in cells, in variable amounts, regardless of growth conditions. These enzymes are known as constitutive. This ability to regulate the levels of enzymes in response to different growth conditions enables bacteria to maximize their resourses by only synthesizing enzymes when they are actually needed to support cell maintenance and growth.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Alberts, B., Bray, D., Lewis, J., Raff, M, Roberts, K., and Watson, J.D. (1983) Molecular Biology of The Cell Garland, New York, pp. 435–455.
Lehninger, A.L. (1982) Principles of Biochemistry. Worth, New York, pp. 871–912.
Stryer, L. (1981) Biochemistry (2nd Ed.) Freeman, San Fransisco, pp. 669–684.
Zubay, G. (1982). Biochemistry. Addison Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, pp. 979–1016.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1986 The Humana Press Inc.
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Goulding, K.H. (1986). The Time Course of β-Galactosidase Induction in Escherichia coli . In: Slater, R.J. (eds) Experiments in Molecular Biology. Springer Protocols Handbooks. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-405-0_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-405-0_22
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-082-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-405-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive