Small colony variants: a pathogenic form of bacteria that facilitates
persistent and recurrent infections.

1: Nat Rev Microbiol. 2006 Apr;4(4):295-305.Click here to read Links
   Small colony variants: a pathogenic form of bacteria that
facilitates persistent and recurrent infections.
   Proctor RA, von Eiff C, Kahl BC, Becker K, McNamara P, Herrmann M,
Peters G.

   University of Wisconsin Medical School, 436 SMI, 1300 University
Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. rap@facstaff.wisc.edu

   Small colony variants constitute a slow-growing subpopulation of
bacteria with distinctive phenotypic and pathogenic traits.
Phenotypically, small colony variants have a slow growth rate,
atypical colony morphology and unusual biochemical characteristics,

making them a challenge for clinical microbiologists to identify.

Clinically, small colony variants are better able to persist in
mammalian cells and are less susceptible to antibiotics than their
wild-type counterparts, and can cause latent or recurrent infections
on emergence from the protective environment of the host cell. This
Review covers the phenotypic, genetic and clinical picture associated
with small colony variants, with an emphasis on staphylococci, for
which the greatest amount of information is available.

   PMID: 16541137 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]