The importance of the viable but non-culturable state in human bacterial pathogens
By Laam Li, Nilmini Mendis, Hana Trigui, J. Oliver, S. Faucher. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2014
919 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Many bacterial species have been found to exist in a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state since its discovery in 1982. VBNC cells are characterized by a loss of culturability on routine agar, which impairs their detection by conventional plate count techniques. This leads to an underestimation of total viable cells in environmental or clinical samples, and thus poses a risk to public health. In this review, we present recent findings on the VBNC state of human bacterial pathogens. The characteristics of VBNC cells, including the similarities and differences to viable, culturable cells and dead cells, and different detection methods are discussed. Exposure to various stresses can induce the VBNC state, and VBNC cells may be resuscitated back to culturable cells under suitable stimuli. The conditions that trigger the induction of the VBNC state and resuscitation from it are summarized and the mechanisms underlying these two processes are discussed. Last but not least, the significance of VBNC cells and their potential influence on human health are also reviewed.
Subfields: Endocrinology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Medicine
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7eca8e4fe8a0b2134c26df85b60f45946ebc78fd
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Citations in the corpus
- Antibiotics versus biofilm: an emerging battleground in microbial communities (2019, background): “Stationary phase (a slow or non-growth phase of the bacterial life cycle) and viable-but-nonculturable state (VBNC state or a state of dormancy) are the ways of survival for bacterial biofilms communities under antibiotics stress [20, 73].”
- Critical review on biofilm methods (2017, methodology): “However, this method presents serious drawbacks and limitations (Li et al., 2014): (i) the fraction of detached live cells may not be representative of the initial biofilm population and (ii) a subpopulation of biofilm cells can be viable but non-culturable (VBNC) and would not be detected by the CF”
- Microbial Biofilm: A Review on Formation, Infection, Antibiotic Resistance, Control Measures, and Innovative Treatment (2023, neutral): “…high number of bacterial cells that survive antibiotic treatment due to tolerance of the slow-growing population and the presence of persisters [158,159], a high mutation rate, and the presence of antimicrobial-selective pressure, as well as localized competition in the compartmentalized structure…”
- Stress Physiology of Lactic Acid Bacteria (2016, background): “Entry into the VBNC state is considered an adaptive strategy for long-term survival (44).”