Definitions and guidelines for research on antibiotic persistence

Increasing concerns about the rising rates of antibiotic therapy failure and advances in single-cell analyses have inspired a surge of research into antibiotic persistence. Bacterial persister cells represent a subpopulation of cells that can survive intensive antibiotic treatment without being resistant. Several approaches have emerged to define and measure persistence, and it is now time to agree on the basic definition of persistence and its relation to the other mechanisms by which bacteria survive exposure to bactericidal antibiotic treatments, such as antibiotic resistance, heteroresistance or tolerance. In this Consensus Statement, we provide definitions of persistence phenomena, distinguish between…

• EM
  European Molecular Biology Organization
• UB
  Universität Basel
• FO
  Federation of European Microbiological Societies
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Award: R01GM
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Award: MR/P028225/1