BACKGROUND The escalating crisis of multidrug resistance is raising fears of untreatable
infections caused by bacterial “superbugs.” However, many patients already suffer from …

Persisters are transiently tolerant variants that allow populations to avoid eradication by
antibiotic treatment. Their antibiotic tolerance is non-genetic, not inheritable and results from …

Persisters are transiently antibiotic-tolerant cells that complicate the treatment of bacterial
infections. Both theory and experiments have suggested that persisters facilitate genetic …

In addition to the well-known strategies of antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation,
bacterial populations possess an additional survival strategy to endure hostile environments …

The widespread use of antibiotics promotes the evolution and dissemination of resistance
and tolerance mechanisms. To assess the relevance of tolerance and its implications for …

The evolution of antibiotic resistance is a major threat to society and has been predicted to
lead to 10 million casualties annually by 2050 1. Further aggravating the problem, multidrug …

Bacteria have at their disposal a battery of strategies to withstand antibiotic stress. Among
these, resistance is a well-known mechanism, yet bacteria can also survive antibiotic attack …

Any bacterial population harbors a small number of phenotypic variants that survive
exposure to high concentrations of antibiotic. Importantly, these so-called 'persister cells' …

Recalcitrant infections pose a serious challenge by prolonging antibiotic therapies and
contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance, thereby threatening the successful …

While specific mutations allow organisms to adapt to stressful environments, most changes
in an organism's DNA negatively impact fitness. The mutation rate is therefore strictly …