What do we mean by viability in terms of 'viable but non-culturable' cells?

Affiliations

• ¹ State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, China.
• ² College of Marine Life Sciences, and Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China.
• ³ School of Petrochemical Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China.
• ⁴ Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK.