Trueba F J, Woldringh C L
J Bacteriol. 1980 Jun;142(3):869-78. doi: 10.1128/jb.142.3.869-878.1980.
Extensive measurements of steady-state populations of several Escherichia coli strains have consistently indicated that cell diameter decreases with increasing cell length. This was observed both after electron microscopy of air-dried cells and after phase-contrast microscopy of living cells. The analysis was made by considering separately the unconstricted cells and three classes (slight, medium, and deep) of constricted cells in the population. During slow growth, cells with the average newborn length were up to 8% thicker than unconstricted cells twice as long. This decrease in diameter is less at higher growth rates. Despite the small changes and the large variation of the diameter in any particular length class, significant negative correlations between diameter and length were obtained. Cell diameter increases again at the end of the cell cycle as indicated by an increase of average diameter in the three consecutive classes of constriction.
对几种大肠杆菌菌株稳态群体的广泛测量一直表明，细胞直径随着细胞长度的增加而减小。这在空气干燥细胞的电子显微镜观察以及活细胞的相差显微镜观察后均有发现。分析是分别考虑群体中未收缩细胞和三类（轻度、中度和深度）收缩细胞进行的。在缓慢生长期间，平均新生长度的细胞比两倍长的未收缩细胞厚达8%。在较高生长速率下，这种直径减小幅度较小。尽管在任何特定长度类别中直径变化小且差异大，但直径与长度之间仍获得了显著的负相关。如在连续三类收缩中平均直径增加所示，细胞直径在细胞周期结束时再次增加。
