Effects of osmotic stress on ATCC 7644: persistent cells and heat resistance.

Persistent bacteria are a microbial subpopulation that, exposed to bactericidal treatment, is killed at a slower rate than the rest of the population they are part of. They can be triggered either following stress or stochastically without external signals. The hallmark of persistent bacteria is the biphasic killing curve, a sign that, within a microbial population, two subpopulations are inactivated at a different rate.