Fig 1.
Salt-induced unculturability can be reversed by stress removal. A. baumannii ATCC 19606T was grown in minimal medium with 20 mM succinate and 300 mM NaCl to the stationary growth phase (timepoint 0 [T0]) and incubated for further 4 days (A). At timepoints indicated (red squares), the culturable cell count (●) was determined by serially diluting the culture and plating samples onto LB agar plates (B). Once culturability dropped below 100 CFU/mL, a resuscitation assay was performed. Therefore, the stressor was removed by diluting cells 1:10 in sterile PBS. Samples were plated directly after inoculation (black bars) and after 2 days at 37°C (gray bars, C). Error bars denote the standard deviation of the mean derived from at least three independent biological replicates.