Bacteria have long been recognized to be capable of entering a phenotypically non-growing persister state, in which the cells exhibit an extended regrowth lag and a multidrug tolerance, thus posing a great challenge in treating infectious diseases. Owing to their non-inheritability, low abundance of existence, lack of metabolic activities, and high heterogeneity, properties of persisters remain poorly understood. Here, we report our accidental discovery of a subcellular structure that we term the regrowth-delay body, which is formed only in non-growing bacterial cells and sequesters multiple key proteins. This structure, that dissolves when the cell resumes growth, is able to be viewed as a marker of persisters. Our studies also indicate that persisters exhibit different depth of persistence, as determined by the status of their regrowth-delay bodies. Our findings imply that suppressing the formation and/or promoting the dissolution of regrowth-delay bodies could be viable strategies for eradicating persisters.

长期以来，细菌一直被认为能够进入表型不生长的持久性状态，其中细胞表现出延长的再生滞后和多药耐受性，因此在治疗传染病方面提出了巨大的挑战。由于它们的不可继承性，存在的低丰度，缺乏代谢活性以及高度的异质性，对持久性的性质仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们报告了偶然发现的一个亚细胞结构，我们称其为再生长延迟体，它仅在未生长的细菌细胞中形成，并隔离了多种关键蛋白质。当细胞恢复生长时溶解的这种结构可以被视为持久性的标志。我们的研究还表明，坚持者表现出不同的坚持深度，由它们的再生延迟体的状态决定。我们的发现暗示抑制再生长延迟体的形成和/或促进再生长延迟体的溶解可能是消除持久性的可行策略。