The conversion factor between thymidine incorporation and bacterial production in Escherichia coli

Conversion factors between thymidine incorporation and bacterial production in Escherichia coli have been calculated from bacterial numbers and accumulated thymidine incorporation. The theoretical value calculated from the available bibliographic data is about 20-fold lower than the experimental factor and other conversion factors reported in natural waters. The differences between the observed and the expected conversion factors suggest that the use of thymidine incorporation in aquatic microbiology in order to calculate bacterial production requires estimation of the corresponding conversion factor or the thymidine incorporation into DNA.