{"database":"GEO","file_versions":[],"scores":null,"additional":{"omics_type":["Transcriptomics"],"species":["Mycobacterium tuberculosis"],"gds_type":["Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing"],"full_dataset_link":["https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE302156"],"repository":["GEO"],"entry_type":["GSE"],"additional_accession":[]},"is_claimable":false,"name":"Growth arrest of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in acidic environments enhances their survival of antibiotic treatment","description":"The ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) bacilli to adapt to host microenvironments by changing growth behaviors promotes population-level survival against host and drug stressors. However, we have a poor understanding of how Mtb’s growth behaviors change at a single-cell level as the population responds to host environmental cues. Here we show that Mtb adapts to acidic conditions by increasing the proportion of bacteria in a growth-arrested state rather than uniformly slowing the growth rate of the entire population. Bacteria in the growth-arrested subpopulation were more tolerant to treatment with ethambutol. Clinical strains in both neutral and acidic conditions have a higher proportion of bacteria in the growth-arrested state, suggesting that growth arrest is a bet-hedging mechanism that is important during infection. The PhoPR two-component system is thought to be a master regulator that enables Mtb to adapt to and survive acidic pH stressors, but we show that it is a partial regulator of the non-growing bacterial subpopulation and that other transcriptional regulators are involved. Our study demonstrates that non-growing subpopulations of Mtb provide fitness benefits and are an active adaptation to environmental cues and not a passive consequence of stressors.","dates":{"publication":"2026/05/28"},"accession":"GSE302156","cross_references":{"GSM":["GSM9097193","GSM9097195","GSM9097194","GSM9097197","GSM9097196","GSM9097199","GSM9097210","GSM9097198","GSM9097212","GSM9097201","GSM9097211","GSM9097200","GSM9097214","GSM9097203","GSM9097202","GSM9097213","GSM9097216","GSM9097205","GSM9097204","GSM9097215","GSM9097207","GSM9097206","GSM9097209","GSM9097208"],"GPL":["27507"],"GSE":["302156"],"taxon":["Mycobacterium tuberculosis"]}}