Prophages and Growth Dynamics Confound Experimental Results with Antibiotic-Tolerant Persister Cells.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial persisters are phenotypic variants that survive antibiotic treatment in a dormant state and can be formed by multiple pathways. We recently proposed that the second messenger (p)ppGpp drives Escherichia coli persister formation through protease Lon and activation of toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules. This model found considerable support among researchers studying persisters but also generated controversy as part of recent debates in the field. In this study, we therefore used our previous work as a model to critically examine common experimental procedures to understand and overcome the inconsistencies often observed between results of different laboratories. Our results show that seemingly simple antibiotic killing assays are very sensitive to variations in culture conditions

SUBMITTER: Harms A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5727415 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature