Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Bacterial viability and culturability

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Michael Barer, Professor Colin Harwood

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.


Abstract

Renewed interest in the relationships between viability and culturability in bacteria stems from three sources: (1) the recognition that there are many bacteria in the biosphere that have never been propagated or characterized in laboratory culture; (2) the proposal that some readily culturable bacteria may respond to certain stimuli by entering a temporarily non-culturable state termed 'viable but non-culturable' (VBNC) by some authors; and (3) the development of new techniques that facilitate demonstration of activity, integrity and composition of non-culturable bacterial cells. We review the background to these areas of interest emphasizing the view that, in an operational context, the term VBNC is self-contradictory (Kell et al., 1998) and the likely distinctions between temporarily non-culturable bacteria and those that have never been cultured. We consider developments in our knowledge of physiological processes in bacteria that may influence the outcome of a culturability test (injury and recovery, ageing, adaptation and differentiation, substrate-accelerated death and other forms of metabolic self-destruction, prophages, toxin-antitoxin systems and cell-to-cell communication). Finally, we discuss whether it is appropriate to consider the viability of individual bacteria or whether, in some circumstances, it may be more appropriate to consider viability as a property of a community of bacteria.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Barer MR; Harwood CR

Publication type: Review

Publication status: Published

Journal: Advances in Microbial Physiology

Year: 1999

Volume: 41

Issue: 0

Pages: 93-137

Print publication date: 01/01/1999

ISSN (print): 0065-2911

ISSN (electronic): 2162-5468

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2911(08)60166-6

DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2911(08)60166-6

PubMed id: 10500845


Share