Growth and division of Escherichia coli under microgravity conditions

The growth rate in glucose minimal medium and time of entry into the stationary phase in pepton cultures were determined during the STS 42 mission of the space shuttle Discovery. Cells were cultured in plastic bags and growth was stopped at six different time points by lowering the temperature to 5 degrees C, and at a single time point, by formaldehyde fixation. Based on cell number determination, the doubling time calculated for the flight samples of glucose cells was shorter (46 min) than for the ground samples (59 min). However, a larger cell size expected for more rapidly growing cells was not observed by volume measurements with the electronic particle counter, nor by electron microscopic measurement of cell dimensions. Only for cells fixed in flight was a larger cell length and percentage of constricted cells found. An optical density increase in the peptone cultures showed an earlier entry into the stationary phase in flight samples, but this could not be confirmed by viability counts. The single sample with cells fixed in flight showed properties indicative of growth stimulation. However, taking all observations together, we conclude that microgravity has no effect on the growth rate of exponentially growing Escherichia coli cells.