Bacterial Memory of Persisters: Bacterial Persister Cells Can Retain Their Phenotype for Days or Weeks After Withdrawal From Colony-Biofilm Culture.

Persister cells, or persisters, are a specific subpopulation of bacterial cells that have acquired temporary antibiotic-resistant phenotypes. In this study, we showed that produces many more persister cells in colony-biofilm culture than in the usual liquid culture and that these persisters can be maintained in higher numbers than those from liquid culture for up to 4 weeks at 37°C in a fresh, nutrient-rich, antibiotic-containing medium, even after complete withdrawal from the colony-biofilm culture. This suggests the presence of a long-retention effect, or "memory effect", in the persister cell state of cells.

Bacteriophage P1-induced cell-to-cell plasmid transformation in .

Bacteria undergo horizontal gene transfer via various mechanisms. We recently reported that cell-to-cell transfer of nonconjugative plasmids occurs between strains of in co-cultures, and that a specific strain (CAG18439) causes frequent plasmid transfer involving a DNase-sensitive mechanism, which we termed "cell-to-cell transformation". Here we found that CAG18439 is a type of P1 bacteriophage lysogen that continuously releases phages.

Genome-wide screen for Escherichia coli genes involved in repressing cell-to-cell transfer of non-conjugative plasmids.

Acquiring new genetic traits by lateral gene transfer is a bacterial strategy for environment adaptation. We previously showed that Escherichia coli could laterally transmit non-conjugative plasmids in co-cultures containing strains with and without the plasmid. In this study, using the Keio collection, a comprehensive library of E.