Induction, detection, formation, and resuscitation of viable but non‐culturable state microorganisms

Abstract

The viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state has been recognized as a strategy for bacteria to cope with stressful environments; in this state, bacteria fail to grow on routine culture medium but are actually alive and can resuscitate into a culturable state under favorable conditions. The VBNC state may pose a great threat to food safety and public health. To date, more than 100 VBNC microorganism species have been proven to exist in fields of food safety, environmental application, and agricultural diseases. Most harsh conditions can induce these microorganisms into the VBNC state, including food processing and preservation methods, adverse environmental conditions, and plant‐disease controlling means. The characteristics of VBNC state cells differ from those of normally growing cells and dead cells, based on which of the various detection methods are developed, and they are of great significance for potential risk assessment. To provide molecular level insights into this state, many studies on induction and resuscitation mechanisms have emerged over the past three decades, including research on omics, specific genes, or proteins involved in VBNC state formation and the roles of promoters in resuscitation from the VBNC state. In this review, microorganism species, induction and resuscitation factors, detection methods, and formation and resuscitation mechanisms of the VBNC state are comprehensively and systematically summarized.

The impact of sample processing and media chemistry on the culturable diversity of bacteria isolated from a cave

“…Previous studies of cave communities (e.g., Bhullar et al, 2012) have resuspended samples in sterilized water obtained from that cave. Although this may improve culturability by making sample suspensions geochemically similar to the cave environment (e.g., Zengler, 2009;Stewart, 2012), osmotic stress and low salinity have been shown to induce a viable but non culturable state in bacteria (Gin & Goh, 2013;Li et al, 2014;Dong et al, 2020). This suggests that suspension solutions buffered to physiological conditions (for example, pH, sodium, and potassium; Kobayashi, 1985;Padan et al, 2005) may be effective for increasing culturability.…”

Polymer Electrochromism Driven by Metabolic Activity Facilitates Rapid and Facile Bacterial Detection and Susceptibility Evaluation

“…Our metabolism‐based method is also promising to study slow‐growing bacteria, because they do not grow normally to form colony but still have their metabolic activity. [ 43 ] On the other hand, since our detection mechanism is different from the conventional approaches, it is beneficial for developing new drugs with brand‐new antimicrobial mechanisms. Furthermore, in the view of the potential imaging capabilities of this conjugated polymer, [ 44 ] it also holds great promise for in vivo imaging and diagnosis of infectious disease.…”

Biosensors for rapid detection of Salmonella in food: A review

“…The virulence of VBNC pathogens can be maintained or recovered after resuscitation (Zhao, Zhong, Wei, Lin, & Ding, 2017). It has been reported that several Salmonella species can enter the VBNC state and regain culturability once the environmental conditions are back to normal (Dong et al., 2020; Ferro, Amorico, & Deo, 2018). Hence, differentiating VBNC Salmonella from the dead ones is essential for prevention of outbreaks.…”