Can Escherichia coli survive on glucose and water alone? I am novice to biochemistry and biology in general. I am reading Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, and I found the following sentence at the beginning of the chapter on glycolysis: > A bacterium such as Escherichia coli can obtain from glucose the carbon skeletons for every amino acid, nucleotide, coenzyme, fatty acid, or other metabolic intermediate it needs for growth. Does this mean that _E.coli_ can survive in a medium containing H₂O and glucose alone? _E.coli_ can synthesize any other nutrient it needs?

The minimum requirement for _E. coli_ and other bacteria to grow and survive is called **minimal medium**. It's even defined at Merriam-Webster:

> a medium that contains only inorganic salts, a simple carbon source (as carbon dioxide or glucose), and water

Water and glucose are pretty easy, but the source of salts may often change; regardless, you **really** need some potassium, phosphate, and nitrogen for amino acid synthesis. This page has a bunch of information on bacterial growth, including some "recipes" for a few bacterial strains. For _E. coli_ , the classic media is M9, which over at Sigma is made of:

> * 33.9g Na₂HPO₄.7H₂O
> * 15g KH₂PO₄
> * 5g NH₄Cl
> * 2.5g NaCl
>

>
> per litre of solution.

Here are some other recipes.