The road to success of coagulase-negative staphylococci: clinical significance of small colony variants and their pathogenic role in persistent infections

Abstract excerpt

Bacterial small colony variants represent an important aspect of bacterial variability. They are naturally occurring microbial subpopulations with distinctive phenotypic and pathogenic traits, reported for many clinically important bacteria. In clinical terms, SCVs tend to be associated with persistence in host cells and tissues and are less susceptible to antibiotics than their wild-type (WT) counterparts. The...