Table 1 E. coli composition and the energy necessary to synthesise its components at 298 K.

From: The minimum energy required to build a cell

Cell component

Amount (g/100 g Cells)

Energy per gram (kJ/g)

Energy per cell (J/Cell)

Energy fraction

Genome

3.13

0.12

\(1.07\times 10^{-12}\)

1.1%

Transcriptome

19.25

0.10

\(5.54\times 10^{-12}\)

5.7%

Proteome

55

0.37

\(5.86\times 10^{-11}\)

60.8%

Lipid bilayer

9.31

0.79

\(2.099\times 10^{-11}\)

21.8%

Carbohydrates*

10.21

0.34

\(1.009\times 10^{-11}\)

10.4%

Metabolites and ions

3.10

–

–

0.0%

One E. coli cell

 

1.73

\(9.54\times 10^{-11}\)

 
  1. The per gram values in this table are not adjusted to the respective fraction of mass.
  2. *The Carbohydrates’ energy was calculated from the average energy value of the computed biomolecules in order to adjust the energy necessary to synthesise one full cell or one gram of cells. (See Supplementary information). We assume that any energy required to synthesise metabolites and ions is negligible.
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