Continuous culture was carried out with a recombinant Escherichia coli W3110/pCR185, which encodes trp-operon enzymes when the temperature is shifted from $37^{circ}C;t;42^{circ}C$. Under derepressed condition of $42^{circ}C$. plasmlid stability and gene expression were analysed as function of the dilution rate. The stability of plasmid increased with the dilution rate, but maximal levels of gene expression (tryptophan concentration) and plasmid DNA content were obtained at the lowest dilution rate, $0.075;hr^{-1}$. The plasmid instability, observed at low dilution rates, could be explained by the unbalanced biosynthetic state of the recombinant cell harboring a high copy number of plasmid.