title: Active efflux in dormant bacterial cells - New insights into antibiotic persistence.
abstract: Bacterial persisters are phenotypic variants of an isogenic cell population that can survive antibiotic treatment and resume growth after the antibiotics have been removed. Cell dormancy has long been considered the principle mechanism underlying persister formation. However, dormancy alone is insufficient to explain the full range of bacterial persistence. Our recent work revealed that in addition to 'passive defense' via dormancy, persister cells employ 'active defense' via enhanced efflux activity to expel drugs. This finding suggests that persisters combine two seemingly contradictory mechanisms to tolerate antibiotic attack. Here, we review the passive and active aspects of persister formation, discuss new insights into the process, and propose new techniques that can facilitate the study of bacterial persistence.
authors.affiliation: Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871.
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Disease Control and Prevention, AMMS, Beijing, 100071, China. Electronic address: yuehuakebj@163.com.
authors.forename: Yuehua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871. Electronic address: fbai@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bai
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D001693:Biological Transport, Active / Q000502:physiology; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D006151:Guanosine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007211:Indoles / Q000378:metabolism; D050296:Microbial Viability; D015290:Second Messenger Systems / Q000502:physiology; D000075704:Toxin-Antitoxin Systems / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D007211:Indoles; D006151:Guanosine
keywords: Antibiotic persistence; Dormancy; Efflux pumps; Passive and active defense