Environmental Control of Cell Synthesis and Function presents the proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on the Continuous Culture of Micro-organisms, held at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford, on July 19-24, 1971. It reflects the symposium's four main areas of interest, namely, kinetics of growth, advances in equipment design and operation, influence of environment on the control of cell synthesis, and physico-chemical effects on cell structure and functioning, and some 20 individual topics. With a strong focus on the influence of chemical and physical nature of the growth environment on the structure and functioning of microbial cell, the book starts by presenting the chemostat theory, its validity, extensions, and future challenges. It goes on to discuss the progress in environmental control of continuous culture, the product formation in continuous culture, and internal and external conditions involved in its control. Chapters 3 to 8 explore the hypertrophic and continuously synchronized growths; mixed culture studies with the chemostat; kinetics of growth on aqueous-oil and aqueous-solid dispersed systems; design and operation improvements of the chemostat; and the role of turbidostat. Chapters 9 to 14 focus on the influence of environmental and cellular factors on cell physiology. The concluding chapters discuss the application of continuous culture to research in microbiology, particularly, to problems of microbial physiology. This book is ideal for microbial researchers, microbial physiologists, and cell biologists who are particularly interested in continuous culture techniques.