Question

Clostridium perfringens, a bacterium responsible for food poisoning, can divide in just 10 minutes under optimum conditions. Assuming this generation time and that five C. perfringens cells have landed on a platter of chicken wings that is not being kept refrigerated at a picnic: How many cells of C. perfringens will there be in the platter after 2 hours?

Answer 1

Answer: 20,480

Explanation:

Bacterial growth is the division of a bacterium into two daughter cells in a process called binary fission. Assuming no mutation occurs, the resulting daughter cells will be genetically identical to the original cell. In this way "local replication" of the bacterial population takes place. The two daughter cells created after the division do not necessarily survive. However, if the number of survivors exceeds one, on average, the bacterial population experiences an exponential growth.

In two hours, there are 120 minutes. If the bacteria divides every 10 minutes, then 120/10= 12. Since the division is exponential, this is expressed as 2^12. Which gives us a number of 4,096 bacteria. But since there are 5 cells, 4,096 x 5 = 20,480