The Dynamics of Polyphosphates under Culture Growth

PolyP metabolism in E. coli is interesting first of all due to the very intensive investigations of its phosphorus metabolism both in the biochemical and genetic aspects. 

The earliest work with this bacterium showed that PolyPs occurred in it in extremely low amounts, if at all, and were present not continually and often under specific conditions, usually under growth limitation by some nutrient sources. Indeed, study of the dynamics of PolyP accumulation during the growth of the wild-type strain E. coli K12 on a mineral 

The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates I. S. Kulaev, V. M. Vagabov and T. V. Kulakovskaya 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd ISBN 0-470-85810-9 

In many organisms, the addition of P, to a culture previously deprived of phosphorus results in a rapid accumulation of PolyP to an extent many times exceeding the level which is characteristic of normal growth on a complete medium. This phenomenon is called hypercompensation or phosphate overplus . In E. coli, this effect was not found. The addition of P to a starved culture resulted in a rapid restoration of biomass accumulation. 

As regards the PolyP and P levels, the only thing observed was a replenishment of the reserves of PolyP and P to the levels typical of those in cells growing on a complete medium with P (Nesmeyanova et al., 1973, 1974a,b). 

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