Stationary Phase

Where the capacity to reproduce falls to zero and there is no further increase in the number of cells.

This phase has a slower metabolic rate however, internal initiation of translation can occur where ribosomes are directed to an internal AUG codon independently at the 5’ end of mRNA.

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Lag Phase

During the lag phase, a cell undergoes a period of adjustment to the medium in which it is growing.  Until it has determined the available nutrients, it will conserve all metabolic activity, so that specific enzymes are synthesised in response to available energy producing components.

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Logarithmic Phase

Logarithmic phase or exponential phase is when cells are actively dividing.  Each species has a division or generation time that is constant.  The generation time is the amount of time it takes for a cell population to double in number. 

The characteristic of logarithmic growth is that the rate of increase is slow initially but increases at a faster rate. 

During this phase, the cells are constantly replicating and growing and there are many metabolic processes involved.  These processes revolve around the use of energy.  During this phase, peptide production is at its highest. 

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