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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Dec 12.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Host Microbe. 2013 Jun 12;13(6):643–651. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2013.05.012

Figure 1. Strategies to overcome growth-limiting stress.

Figure 1

All microorganisms encounter periods during which growth is impossible. Three fundamental themes describe the strategies used to weather these periods. “Bust and boom” describes a strategy that relies on the dynamic persistence of a small subpopulation, “sporulation” is defined by the production of metabolically-inactive spores, and “quiescence” describes a metabolically-active non-replicating cell that is resistant to many environmental insults. These strategies differ in several important respects including the population density of persistent organisms, the sensitivity of these cells to toxins and antibiotics, and the differential dependence on rapid growth to repopulate the niche.