Concepts of Biology (BIOL116) - Dr. S.G. Saupe; Biology Department, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321; ssaupe@csbsju.edu; http://www.employees.csbsju.edu/ssaupe/

Population Growth of Yeast Cells in a Culture Flask

    A scientist was interested in monitoring the growth of a population of yeast cells in a culture flask.  At intervals she determined the number of cells that were growing in the culture flask and recorded the following data:

Exercise:

1. Plot cell number vs. culture age.
2. What do you conclude?
3. What is the carrying capacity of the culture?
4. Why did the population level off at steady state?
5. What do you expect the future of this population to be?