Correction: Microbial phenotypic heterogeneity in response to a metabolic toxin: Continuous, dynamically shifting distribution of formaldehyde tolerance in Methylobacterium extorquens populations.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.

Global Transcriptional Response of to Formaldehyde Stress Expands the Role of EfgA and Is Distinct from Antibiotic Translational Inhibition.

The potency and indiscriminate nature of formaldehyde reactivity upon biological molecules make it a universal stressor. However, some organisms such as possess means to rapidly and effectively mitigate formaldehyde-induced damage. EfgA is a recently identified formaldehyde sensor predicted to halt translation in response to elevated formaldehyde as a means to protect cells.

Microbial phenotypic heterogeneity in response to a metabolic toxin: Continuous, dynamically shifting distribution of formaldehyde tolerance in Methylobacterium extorquens populations.

While microbiologists often make the simplifying assumption that genotype determines phenotype in a given environment, it is becoming increasingly apparent that phenotypic heterogeneity (in which one genotype generates multiple phenotypes simultaneously even in a uniform environment) is common in many microbial populations. The importance of phenotypic heterogeneity has been demonstrated in a number of model systems involving binary phenotypic states (e.g.

Halovivax limisalsi sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon from hypersaline mud.

A Gram-stain-negative, cream-pigmented, motile, extremely halophilic archaeon, designated strain IC38(T), was isolated from a saline mud sample taken from a hypersaline lake, Aran-Bidgol, in Iran. The strain required at least 2.5 M NaCl for growth.