Question

A bacteria doubles its population in 8 hours. At this rate how many hours would it take the population of the bacteria to triple?

Answer 1

Hint: The multiplication of bacteria results in cell growth which in turn results in the increase in the number of bacterial cells leading to the population growth in the culture medium. The bacteria undergo asexual reproduction for multiplication.

Complete answer:
The rate of bacteria can be calculated by the differentiation and integration method to calculate the unit rate. If the bacteria doubles its population in 8 hours then the unit rate of bacterial growth is 4 hours, since we have to find the time for triple growth so we will multiply it by 3 thus resulting in the approximate time of growth. Thus, it will take 12 hours approximately for bacteria to triple their population but if we calculate from the long exponential growth method then we will observe that it will take 12 hours and 37 minutes accurately for the bacteria to triple its population. Multiplication mostly occurs by the asexual reproduction.

Additional information:
Sexual reproduction in bacteria occurs in three stages that include, first stage is the bacterial virus-mediated transduction, the second stage is plasmid-mediated conjugation, and the third stage is the natural transformation. The DNA here is carried to the recipient cell and is transferred through the sex pilus that acts as the extended part of the plasma membrane.
Asexual reproduction requires only one parent and the offsprings produced are similar to the parents. This type of reproduction is of various types that include budding, fragmentation, and fission. Fission includes Binary fission and multiple fission. The process in which a parent cell divides to form two daughter cells is called binary fission while the process where the parent cell divides to produce many daughter cells is called multiple fission. The daughter cells produced in both the processes are similar to the parent cell. The process in which an organism breaks into fragments and each fragrant produces a new individual is called fragmentation.

Note:
It is important to note that even though conjugation is considered the simplest mode of sexual reproduction, it is an incomplete and one-way transfer of DNA from the donor to the recipient cell. Also in transduction bacteriophages are involved which are viruses and they indirectly help bacteria in sexual reproduction.