The DOI matches its Crossref record; 76 of the 77 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Persister cells, dormancy and infectious disease
Abstract
Several well-recognized puzzles in microbiology have remained unsolved for decades. These include latent bacterial infections, unculturable microorganisms, persister cells and biofilm multidrug tolerance. Accumulating evidence suggests that these seemingly disparate phenomena result from the ability of bacteria to enter into a dormant (non-dividing) state. The molecular mechanisms that underlie the formation of dormant persister cells are now being unravelled and are the focus of this Review.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Persistence is always linked to cell dormancy, a state in which the cellular metabolism temporarily ceases [111,123,124].”
From Insight into the Mechanisms and Clinical Relevance of Antifungal Heteroresistance (2025) · cites this paper as [124]
In the citing paper
“In contrast, resistance is linked to specific molecular mechanisms and can be stably inherited by progeny [15,17–19].”
From Antifungal persistence: Clinical relevance and mechanisms (2025) · cites this paper as [18]
In the citing paper
“Thirdly, antifungal persistence is non-heritable, although the progeny of persisters may still divide into persistent subpopulations and non-persistent subpopulations.”
From Antifungal persistence: Clinical relevance and mechanisms (2025) · cites this paper as [18]
In the citing paper
“It has been well studied that dormant state reduces the exposure of antibiotic targets and helps bacterial cells tolerate a variety of antibiotics, a process linked to the toxin-antitoxin system [18,54].”
From Antifungal persistence: Clinical relevance and mechanisms (2025) · cites this paper as [18]
Citations
Cites
Bacterial biofilms: from the Natural environment to infectious diseases
Hall‐Stoodley, L., Costerton, J. W., & Stoodley, P. (2004) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nrmicro821 · Cited by 7,133
Antibacterial resistance worldwide: causes, challenges and responses
Levy, S. B., & Marshall, B. M. (2004) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/nm1145 · Cited by 4,152
Bacterial Persistence as a Phenotypic Switch
Balaban, N. Q., Merrin, J., Chait, R., Kowalik, L., & Leibler, S. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1099390 · Cited by 2,952
Stochasticity in gene expression: from theories to phenotypes
Kærn, M., Elston, T. C., Blake, W. J., & Collins, J. J. (2005) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg1615 · Cited by 2,318
Chemotaxis in Escherichia coli analysed by Three-dimensional Tracking
Berg, H. C., & Brown, D. A. (1972) · Nature · doi:10.1038/239500a0 · Cited by 2,239
Lewis, K. (2001) · Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy · doi:10.1128/aac.45.4.999-1007.2001 · Cited by 2,005
Self-citationTOR, a Central Controller of Cell Growth
Schmelzle, T., & Hall, M. N. (2000) · Cell · doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(00)00117-3 · Cited by 1,914
Quorum-sensing signals indicate that cystic fibrosis lungs are infected with bacterial biofilms
Singh, P. K., Schaefer, A. L., Parsek, M. R., Moninger, T. O., Welsh, M. J., & Greenberg, E. P. (2000) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35037627 · Cited by 1,519
Staley, J. T., & Konopka, A. E. (1985) · Annual Review of Microbiology · doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.39.100185.001541 · Cited by 1,512
Isolating "Uncultivable" Microorganisms in Pure Culture in a Simulated Natural Environment
Kaeberlein, T., Lewis, K., & Epstein, S. S. (2002) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1070633 · Cited by 1,258
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 77 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Hooper, D. C. in Bacterial Resistance to Antimicrobials: Mechanisms, Genetics, Medical Practice and Public Health (eds Lewis, K., Salyers A., Taber H. & Wax, R.) 161–192 (Marcell Dekker, New York, 2002).
- Walker, G. C. in Cell. Mol. Biol. (ed. Neidhardt, F. C.) 1400–1416 (ASM Press, Washington DC, 1996).
- Morgan, H. C., Meier, J. F. & Merker, R. L. Method of creating a biostatic agent using interpenetrating network polymers. US Patent 6, 146, 688 (2000).
- Hurst, C. J. Divining the future of microbiology. ASM News 71, 262–263 (2005).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A Chromatin-Mediated Reversible Drug-Tolerant State in Cancer Cell Subpopulations
Sharma, S. V., Lee, D. Y., Li, B., Quinlan, M. P., Takahashi, F., Maheswaran, S., McDermott, U., Azizian, N., Zou, L., Fischbach, M. A., et al. (2010) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2010.02.027 · Cited by 2,770
Physiological heterogeneity in biofilms
Stewart, P. S., & Franklin, M. J. (2008) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nrmicro1838 · Cited by 2,483
Microbial seed banks: the ecological and evolutionary implications of dormancy
Lennon, J. T., & Jones, S. E. (2011) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nrmicro2504 · Cited by 1,935
Lewis, K. (2010) · Annual Review of Microbiology · doi:10.1146/annurev.micro.112408.134306 · Cited by 1,858
Self-citationMolecular mechanisms of biofilm-based antibiotic resistance and tolerance in pathogenic bacteria
Hall, C. W., & Mah, T. (2017) · FEMS Microbiology Reviews · doi:10.1093/femsre/fux010 · Cited by 1,831
Metadata
- Authors
- Lewis, K.
- Affiliations
- Northeastern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lewis, Kim
- ORCID
- Lewis, Kim
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Microbiology
- Published
- 2006-12-04
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 48-56
- ISSN
- 1740-1526 (ISSN-L)
- 1740-1534
- OpenAlex
- W2045825103
- Cited by
- 2,052
- References
- 77
- Citations by year
- 2026: 101 · 2025: 98 · 2024: 104 · 2023: 116 · 2022: 126 · 2021: 129 · 2020: 127 · 2019: 132 · 2018: 122 · 2017: 100 · 2016: 120 · 2015: 130 · 2014: 94 · 2013: 104 · 2012: 108
- FWCI
- 5.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Reviews Microbiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus
- Keywords
- persister cells, bacterial dormancy, antibiotic tolerance, persistent infection, unculturable microorganisms, multidrug tolerance
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Bacteria, Bacterial Infections, Drug Tolerance, Genes, Bacterial, Humans, Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial, Bacterial Physiological Phenomena, Biofilms, Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial, Microbial Viability
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
