Effect of amino acid deprivation and chloramphenicol treatment on cell sizes of rel+ and relA strains of Escherichia coli

Abstract
The effects of inhibition of protein synthesis on the cell size distributions of rel+ and relA derivatives of Escherichia coli K-12 were determined. Amino acid deprivation resulted in a reduction in the cell sizes of rel+ strains but not of relA strains. Treatment with chloramphenicol (CAM) did not alter the size distributions of either rel+ or relA strains except when they were rel+dap. CAM treatment of rel+dap strains resulted in an increase in cell size. It is proposed that these results reflect differences in the structures of the cell envelopes of rel+ and relA bacteria.