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Nature 458, 831 (16 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/458831a; Published online 15 April 2009

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Dormant microbes: scouting ahead or plodding along?

Peter H. Janssen1

  1. AgResearch Limited, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
    Email: peter.janssen@agresearch.co.nz

In his Essay 'Microbial awakenings' (Nature 457, 1083; 2009), Slava Epstein proposes that microbial cells stochastically revert from a state of dormancy to a growing state, allowing a clonal population of dormant cells to exploit rare and transient conditions in an environment with unpredictable periods of feast and famine. This 'scout' strategy is compatible with some — but not all — explanations for the general unculturability of environmental microbes.

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