Autoradiographic studies of the synthesis of RNA and protein as a function of cell volume in Streptococcus faecium

Mid-exponential-phase cultures were either labeled continuously with tritiated leucine and uracil or pulse-labeled with tritiated leucine. The amount of leucine and uracil incorporated into protein or RNA per cell was determined by grain counts of autoradiographs of cells seen in electron micrographs; the volume of each cell was determined by three-dimensional reconstruction. The average number of autoradiographic grains around cells continuously labeled with uracil and leucine increased linearly with cell volume. In contrast, while the average grain count around cells pulse-labeled with leucine increased in a near-linear fashion over most of the volume classes, less than the expected number of grains were seen around cells in large- and small-size classes. The distribution of grains around cells from both the continuously and pulse-labeled populations could be fit at the 5% confidence level with a Poisson distribution modified to take into consideration the volume distribution of each population of cells analyzed. These findings suggested that large changes in the density of RNA and protein do not occur in most cells as they increase in size; however, there may be decreases in the rate of protein synthesis in some large and small cells. The decrease in the rate of protein synthesis appears consistent with the hypothesis that new sites of envelope growth must be introduced into cells that are close to the division event to restore rapid growth.