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Environmental and Stress Physiology

Growth Yields and Maintenance Coefficients of Unadapted and NaCl-Adapted Tobacco Cells Grown in Semicontinuous Culture ¹

Center for Plant Environmental Stress Physiology, Department of Horticulture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, Biotechnology Institute, Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

Comparison of carbon utilization between unadapted and NaCl (428 millimolar) adapted tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cells under substrate limited growth conditions was facilitated using semicontinuous culture. Growth yields (Y_g) and maintenance coefficients (m) of unadapted and NaCl adapted cells were similar, indicating that the efficiency of carbon utilization for growth was not altered as a result of salt adaptation and that no additional metabolic costs were associated with growth of adapted cells in the presence of a high concentration (428 millimolar) of NaCl. The Y_g (0.588 grams organic dry weight gain per gram sugar uptake) and m values (0.117 grams sugar uptake per gram organic dry weight per day) were comparable in spite of substantial physiological and biochemical differences that exist between unadapted and NaCl adapted cells. Apparently, a metabolic homeostasis governs biomass production of cells before and after adaptation to salinity.