Silent but Deadly: Insights into the Relationship Between Bacterial Dormancy and Antibiotic Tolerance
A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Mechanism and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 78
Special Issue Editors
Interests: antibiotic resistance; bacterial dormancy; viable but not culturable bacteria; antibiotic persistence; antibiotic tolerance; genetic determinants of antibiotic resistance; persistence and tolerance
Interests: antibiotic resistance mechanisms; genetic bases for the diffusion of antibiotic resistance genes; microbial bioinformatics; new antimicrobial drugs; bacteriophages; bacteriophages as tools for phage therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: multidrug-resistant gram-positive isolates; mechanisms of antibiotic resistance; Staphylococcus aureus internalization; mechanism of action of novel drugs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
All forms of bacterial dormancy, including persistence, tolerance, and the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, are increasingly recognized as critical contributors to the clinical failure of antibiotic therapy. These adaptive strategies contribute to stress-induced quiescence, enabling pathogens to evade both antimicrobial treatment and host immunity. Clinically, they underpin recalcitrant, recurrent, and relapsing infections, which impose a substantial burden on healthcare systems. While genetic resistance is a well-established factor in treatment failure, it is now clear that these non-heritable phenotypic adaptations also play a central role in bacterial survival under antibiotic stress.
This Special Issue invites contributions that advance our understanding of bacterial dormancy in all its forms. We particularly welcome studies on the detection of dormant bacterial states, including unculturable populations; the development and refinement of diagnostic approaches for identifying latent or quiescent cells; and the elucidation of the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying dormancy, persistence, and tolerance. By integrating basic, translational, and clinical research, this collection aims to foster novel strategies to detect, characterize, and ultimately eradicate dormant bacterial populations.
Dr. Massimiliano Lucidi
Dr. Marco Maria D'Andrea
Dr. Floriana Campanile
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- antibiotic persistence
- antibiotic tolerance
- viable but not culturable bacteria
- bacterial quiescence
- phenotypic heterogeneity
- stress-induced dormancy
- recalcitrant infection
- recurrent infection
- relapsing infection
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