Tolerant, Growing Cells from Nutrient Shifts Are Not Persister Cells

ABSTRACT There is much controversy about the metabolic state of cells that are tolerant to antibiotics, known as persister cells. In this opinion piece, we offer an explanation for the discrepancy seen: some laboratories are studying metabolically active and growing cell populations (e.g., as a resu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jun-Seob Kim, Thomas K. Wood
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Society for Microbiology 2017-05-01
Series:mBio
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.00354-17
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Summary:ABSTRACT There is much controversy about the metabolic state of cells that are tolerant to antibiotics, known as persister cells. In this opinion piece, we offer an explanation for the discrepancy seen: some laboratories are studying metabolically active and growing cell populations (e.g., as a result of nutrient shifts) and attributing the phenotypes that they discern to persister cells while other labs are studying dormant cells. We argue here that the metabolically active cell population should more accurately be considered tolerant cells, while the dormant cells are the true persister population.
ISSN:2150-7511