6- Persister Cells (placeholder)

Published: Nov. 8, 2020, noon

Antibiotic resistance we’ve all heard of by now, but what about antibiotic persistence? Join us as we explore the phenomenon of persistence, which allows bacterial infections to reappear even after antibiotic treatment. And all while being genetically identical to their susceptible neighbours! Sources: 1) Wiley, J. M., Sherwood, L. M. and Woolverton, C. J. (2017), Prescott’s microbiology, 10th edition (International Edition), New York, McGraw-Hill Education, p.150, p.188. 2) Fisher, R. A., Gollan, B. and Helanie, S. (2017), Persistent bacterial infections and persister cells. Nature Reviews Microbiology 15: 453- 464. 3) Balaban, N. Q., Helanie, S., Lewis, K., Ackermann, M., Aldridge, B., Andersson, D. I., Brynildsen, M. P., Bumann, D., Camilli, A., Collins, J. J., Dehio, C., Fortune, S., Ghigo, J.-M., Hardt, W.-D., Harms, A., Heinemann, M., Hung, D. T., Jenal, U., Levin, B. R., Michiels, J., Storz, G., Tan, M.-W., Tenson, T., Van Melderen, L., Zinkernagel, A. (2019), Definitions and guidelines for research on antibiotic persistence. Nature Reviews 17: 441- 448. Some sources still need to be added and updated, as I think that some of this is still based on lecture material for revision purposes. I'm going to update this episode eventually, so watch this space.