Persister Escherichia coli Cells Have a Lower Intracellular pH than Susceptible Cells but Maintain Their pH in Response to Antibiotic Treatment

Abstract

Persister and VBNC cells can phenotypically survive environmental stressors, such as antibiotic treatment, limitation of nutrients, and acid stress, and have been linked to chronic infections and antimicrobial resistance. It has recently been suggested that pH regulation might play a role in an organism’s phenotypic survival to antibiotics; however, this hypothesis remains to be tested.