Together, these data imply that the ability of cells to persist in the face of antibiotic treatment depends on the specific mechanism by which the persister phenotype is generated, and the precise manner in which the antibiotic acts: cells that persist in one antibiotic may not persist in a second antibiotic, even if that

antibiotic has a very similar mode of action. These C59 wnt solubility dmso data contrast strongly with data from experimental studies on lab strains of E. coli, which have generally shown that when mutants exhibit higher levels of persistence in one antibiotic, they also exhibit higher levels of persistence in other antibiotics (multidrug tolerance) [6, 7, 11, 13, 19–22]. However, there do appear to be a subset of cells that persist after treatment with multiple antibiotics, as evidenced by using combination treatments. Finally, the data here suggest that the parameter that has the largest influence on the fraction of Selleckchem BIBF 1120 persisters exhibited by any strain is the rate of switching from a normal cellular phenotype to a persister state; in contrast, the rate of switching from

persister to normal cell has a much smaller influence. Results Consistent quantification of persister fractions A critical issue when studying bacterial persistence is the precise definition of the persister fraction. Previous studies have defined persister cells as the VX-680 chemical structure surviving fraction after antibiotic exposure for an arbitrary amount of time, ranging from hours [4, 8, 10, 11, 19, 23–25] up to several days [15]. In addition, these fractions have been assessed at different growth states: mid-exponential [8, 10, 11, 19, 25], late exponential [24] and in rare cases, stationary phase [4, 24, 25]. Most often, these studies are performed in liquid cultures of rich media. However, some studies have assayed persisters on agar [6, 12, 13], by plating samples of logarithmically growing cultures on LB agar with ampicillin, incubating overnight, spraying the plates with penicillinase, and again incubating for 24 hours to count the number of surviving cells. These

different methods tremendously complicate comparisons across studies. To quantify the fraction of persisters in a consistent manner, we use a model motivated by triclocarban observations of persister cell dynamics first reported by Balaban et al. [6], who observed two types of persister cells, which they proposed arose through two different mechanisms. Type I persisters occurred through unspecified events that occur during stationary phase, and remained fully dormant until switching to a normal growth state. These have been associated with a specific genotype, the hipA7 allele. Type II persisters arise through an infrequent stochastic switch to a slow-growth state, and remain so until switching to a normal growth state. These were associated with a mutation at a second locus, hipQ. A similar model of persister formation has been proposed by Wiuff et al. [23].