Cellular plasmid content and cloned-gene expression: Some useful equations

Abstract
Cellular plasmid content determines the yield of closed-gene product, affects plasmid replication, and influences the behavior of the culture by dictating the extent of metabolic burden on the host cell and plasmid segregation at cell division. Hence, it is a variable of primary importance in the study of recombinant cell cultures. In this article, equations are developed to enable the conversion of experimental determinations of cellular plasmid content into theoretically important units. The importance of different units in characterizing plasmid effect on cell response is highlighted. Also, equations that relate cellular plasmid content to cloned-gene expression are developed and successfully tested on several sets of data from literature.