A simple structured model is described and compared with experimental data for fermentations with recombinant. Escherichia coli. The model is a so-called compartment, model, where the different biomass components are lumped together in a few intracellular variables. The model is able to describe, in a biologically reasonable fashion, a majority of the observations that have been made through fermentations with recombinant microorganisms. The model is especially suited for description of dynamic changes in plasmid copy number, e.g., runaway plasmid replication.