Is there any quantitative relationship between the synthesis and the breakdown of nucleic acids in living cells?

Death of Bacteria in Growing Culture

“…Hevesy and Zerahn (1946) with yeast and Labow et al (1949) with E. coli have placed P32-labeled cells in unlabeled medium and observed that the activity of the cells does not decline significantly on further incubation. This observation has been subsequently confirmed by Fujisawa and Sibatini (1954) and Hershey (1954). Because the detection of liberation of cellular label into the medium in their experiments would result only if there were a large decrease in the label retained by the bacteria, these experiments are relatively insensitive and would fail to detect a release of material, especially if it were reincorporated.…”

“…In growing cultures of bacteria, intracellular protein degradation (Koch and Levy, 1955;Rotman and Spiegleman, 1954;Hogness et al, 1955) and nucleic acid degradation (Koch and Levy, 1955;Fujisawa and Sibatini, 1954;Hershey, 1954) are not observed. Under normal conditions in which the cells are not subject to stress, cell death is a rare occurrence.…”

The Chemistry of the Cell Nucleus

“…It has been found that isotopic carbon and phosphorus, once incorporated into bacterial DNA, remain in the DNA throughout successive generations; there is no evidence of breakdown or "turn-460 ALLFREY, MIRRKY, AND STERN over'' (295,296). It has been found that isotopic carbon and phosphorus, once incorporated into bacterial DNA, remain in the DNA throughout successive generations; there is no evidence of breakdown or "turn-460 ALLFREY, MIRRKY, AND STERN over'' (295,296).…”

Conservation of Nucleic Acids During Bacterial Growth

“…from the cells. It could, however, be detected as an intracellular shift of isotope from one substance to another, as from RNA to DNA (9) or from adenine to guanine. Such shifts should, moreover, respond in a predictable way to competitive substrates supplied in the culture medium,…”