Journal Article
mBio, vol. 10, iss. 5, 2019
Authors
Liang Yin, Hongyu Ma, Ernesto S. Nakayasu, Samuel H. Payne, David R. Morris, Caroline S. Harwood, Dianne K. Newman
Abstract
We are surrounded by bacteria, but they do not completely dominate our planet despite the ability of many to grow extremely rapidly in the laboratory. This has been interpreted to mean that bacteria in nature are often in a dormant state. We investigated life in growth arrest of
Rhodopseudomonas palustris
, a proteobacterium that stays alive for months when it is not growing. We found that cells were metabolically active, and they continued to synthesize proteins and mounted a stringent response, both of which were required for their longevity. Our results suggest that long-lived bacteria are not necessarily inactive but have an active metabolism that is well adjusted to life without growth.
