Viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state, an underestimated and controversial microbial survival strategy

Junyan Liu; Liang Yang; Birthe Veno Kjellerup; Zhenbo Xu

doi:10.1016/j.tim.2023.04.009

Viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state, an underestimated and controversial microbial survival strategy

Trends Microbiol. 2023 Oct;31(10):1013-1023. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2023.04.009. Epub 2023 May 23.

Authors

Junyan Liu¹, Liang Yang², Birthe Veno Kjellerup³, Zhenbo Xu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Light Industry and Food Science, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Lingnan Specialty Food Science and Technology, Academy of Contemporary Agricultural Engineering Innovations, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, China; Key Laboratory of Green Processing and Intelligent Manufacturing of Lingnan Specialty Food, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510225, China.
² School of Medicine, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
⁴ School of Food Science and Engineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Natural Products and Product Safety, Engineering Research Center of Starch and Vegetable Protein Processing Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China; Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China. Electronic address: zhenbo.xu@hotmail.com.

PMID: 37225640
DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2023.04.009

Abstract

As a unique microbial response to adverse circumstances, the viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state is characterized by the loss of culturability of microbial cells on/in nutrient media that normally support their growth, while maintaining metabolic activity. These cells can resuscitate to a culturable state under suitable conditions. Given the intrinsic importance of the VBNC state and recent debates surrounding it, there is a need to redefine and standardize the term, and to address essential questions such as 'How to differentiate VBNC from other similar terms?' and 'How can VBNC cells be standardly and accurately determined?'. This opinion piece aims at contributing to an improved understanding of the VBNC state and promoting its proper handling as an underestimated and controversial microbial survival strategy.

Keywords: culturability; detection methods; persister cells; viability; viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state.

Publication types

Review