Crystal structure of VapC21 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis at 1.31 Å resolution.

Persisters are individual bacterial cells that exhibit a phenotype characterized by slow growth, low metabolic rate and multidrug tolerance. The processes that drive cells into a persistence state constitute an active but incipient research field, and structural data regarding its components are scarce. The molecular targets of many therapeutic drugs are involved in cell wall synthesis and cell division, and these cellular processes are down-regulated in persister cells, consequently these cells are more likely to survive antibiotic treatment.