Establishment of a method to rapidly assay bacterial persister metabolism.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial persisters exhibit an extraordinary tolerance to antibiotics that is dependent on their metabolic state. Although persister metabolism promises to be a rich source of antipersister strategies, there is relatively little known about the metabolism of these rare and transient phenotypic variants. To address this knowledge gap, we explored the use of several techniques, and we found that only one measured persister metabolism. This assay was based on the phenomenon of metabolite-enabled aminoglycoside killing of persisters, and we used it to characterize the metabolic heterogeneity of different persister populations. From these investigations, we determined that glycerol and glucose are the most ubiquitously used carbon sources by various types of Escherichia coli persisters, sugges

SUBMITTER: Orman MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3754326 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature