After 2 hour starvation, E. coli cultures were pulse fed 10 µM glucose at varying frequencies using the spin flask and plate reader systems, and optical density (OD) was measured over time (inset example figures). Grey dots are OD measurements and the black lines are an empirical fit (see Methods). For separate experiments (n = 18), the lag time is plotted against the frequency, represented as the time-integrated (TI) feedrate f (mmol glucose/g dry cell weight/hour). An empirical fit (grey solid line, see Methods) was used to separate the lag (non-dividing) and dividing phases 