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BACTERIAL PHYSIOLOGY

Stress and disarray leading to persistence

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 20, page 63 (2022)Cite this article

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Persister cells are a subset of bacterial cells that can survive antibiotic treatment. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to underlie this phenomenon, no common pathway has been identified so far. Kaplan et al. combine modelling, laboratory experiments and microfluidics to show that acute stressful conditions, such as amino acid starvation, low pH or inhibition of translation, trigger persistence in Escherichia coli by disrupting the network of cellular pathways, which randomly leads some cells to recover very slowly from this disruption. The authors compare this phenomenon to physical ageing, in which aged materials ‘bounce back’ slowly from disruptions. In the bacteria, this ‘ageing’ was evident as increased lag time until the cells started growing again, and thus persistence. By contrast, gradual stress gave the bacteria time to adapt and without ensuing network disruption, they could regrow quickly.

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  • Balaban, N. Q. et al. Definitions and guidelines for research on antibiotic persistence. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 17, 441–448 (2019)

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  1. Nature Reviews Microbiology http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/

    Ursula Hofer

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  1. Ursula Hofer
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Correspondence to Ursula Hofer.

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Hofer, U. Stress and disarray leading to persistence. Nat Rev Microbiol 20, 63 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00669-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00669-7

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