Relative levels of many individual proteins in Escherichia coli HB101 strains with 0, 37, 56, and 240 plasmids per chromosome were determined by computer image analysis of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis patterns. The plasmids investigated had very similar sequences except for small domains encoding the repressor of plasmid replication. At the intermediate plasmid copy number of 56, levels of several of the TCA cycle enzymes (oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex, succinate thiokinase, and succinate dehydrogenase) as well as in aspartate transcarbamoylase increased. At a plasmid copy number of 240, higher amounts of PEP carboxylase as well as several of the heat shock proteins were observed. Furthermore, at high plasmid levels, significant decreases occurred in growth rate, pyruvate kinase I, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, unadenylated glutamine synthetase, aspartate transcarbamoylase as well as in several of the proteins involved in translation. Decreases in ribosome content as well as in the free 30S and 50S ribosomal subunit pool fractions were also observed in separate analyses. These results indicate that recombinant DNA manipulations can cause major alterations in numerous host cell properties which could significantly influence cloned protein production or metabolic engineering endeavors.