Open AccessBacterial persisters are a stochastically formed subpopulation of low-energy cells
Author(s) -
Sylvie Manuse,
Yue Shan,
Silvia J. Cañas-Duarte,
Somenath Bakshi,
Wei-Sheng Sun,
Hirotada Mori,
Johan Paulsson,
Kim Lewis
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.127
H-Index - 271
eISSN - 1545-7885
pISSN - 1544-9173
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001194
Subject(s) - biology , escherichia coli , multidrug tolerance , antibiotics , in vivo , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , ampicillin , adenosine triphosphate , biophysics , biofilm , biochemistry , genetics , gene
Persisters represent a small subpopulation of non- or slow-growing bacterial cells that are tolerant to killing by antibiotics. Despite their prominent role in the recalcitrance of chronic infections to antibiotic therapy, the mechanism of their formation has remained elusive. We show that sorted cells of Escherichia coli with low levels of energy-generating enzymes are better able to survive antibiotic killing. Using microfluidics time-lapse microscopy and a fluorescent reporter for in vivo ATP measurements, we find that a subpopulation of cells with a low level of ATP survives killing by ampicillin. We propose that these low ATP cells are formed stochastically as a result of fluctuations in the abundance of energy-generating components. These findings point to a general “low energy” mechanism of persister formation.