With the exhaustion of nutrients, overcrowding and accumulation of toxic products in the metabolism, the culture enters the
death phase. Nevertheless, a small number of cells can survive for many months due to the release of nutrients by dead cells.
Southend went first and the contest entered the sudden
death phase at 4-4 - at which point young Bentley's afternoon got really interesting.
The removal of culture medium containing toxins and spent medium was replaced with fresh medium acts as a replenishment of substrates to prolong the growth profile from entering the stationary phase and eventually the
death phase. Rao and Ravishankar [13] reported that it was possible that the by-products in the spent medium could lead to unwanted feedback inhibition towards the products of interest.