Draft

These results matched the expected results outlined at the start of this experiment. The E. coli thrived at 37°C, survived at 27°C and 45°C, and did not survive at 55°C. After plotting the recorded absorbance with respect to time, cells grown at 37°C showed the highest growth curve with the largest slope. I expected the cells grown at 27°C to have the lowest growth rate. However, the cells grown at 55°C showed not only the lowest growth rate but the inability to grow, resulting in a k and g values of 0. This is shown by low slope of the growth curve for 55°C on the absorbance vs. time graph. I expected that the growth rate of cells grown at 45°C would be higher than cells grown at 27°C. This was not observed, as the cells grown at 27°C had a growth rate 0.03 generations/hour higher than the cells grown at 45°C. The highest growth rate and lowest generation time were recorded by the cells grown at 37°C, which was expected because it is the temperature of E. coli’s natural environment. I expected the generation time of cells grown at 45°C to be lower than the cells grown at 27°C. This was proven to be inaccurate, as the cells grown at 45°C had a generation time 7.3 minutes longer than the cells grown at 27°C. The cells grown at 55°C did not regenerate, but rather lysed due to the extreme heat, yielding a generation time of 0. At this temperature, proteins and other cellular components become denatured and cell lysis occurred.