ENERGETICS OF TOBACCO CELLS, NICOTIANA-TABACUM-L, GROWING ON SUCROSE MEDIUM

Batch cultures of tobacco cells induced from Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Bright Yellow-2 were carried out under oxygen-limited conditions using sucrose as the sole carbon source. Maintenance coefficients for sugar, m, and for oxygen, mO, were 0.02 mmol glucose/g cell dry weight/h and 0.09 mmol O2/g cell dry weight/h, and true growth yields for sugar, YG, and for oxygen, YGO, were 107 g cell dry weight/mol glucose and 61 g cell dry weight/mol O2, respectively. Balance equations based on electrons available from the culture suggested that the carbon-substrate consumed by the cells might be metabolized mainly in biosynthetic processes without the excretion of extracellular products. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.