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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe When conditions are unfavourable, for example, owing to nutrient limitation or environmental stress, bacteria can slow or even arrest their

growth. Whereas spore formation and dormancy have been studied well, comparatively little is known about other survival strategies. Two new studies, one looking at _Bacillus subtilis_ during

several months of nutrient starvation and the other looking at a rare biosphere bacterium in peat soil, show that bacteria grow minimally but maintain some activity to ensure survival.

Within two days of starvation, the cells became markedly smaller and rounder, and after 2 weeks they were less sensitive to several different antibiotics, which might suggest dormancy.

However, their membrane potential was similar to cells in exponential growth, and they were able to synthesize proteins. Furthermore, the cells showed a unique transcriptome profile focused

on nutrient acquisition and use. Last, a cell division inhibition assay indicated that the cells divided, although with a 100-fold slower growth rate than cells in exponential growth. _B.

subtilis_ is found in oligotrophic environments such as soil and lakes, which suggests that oligotrophic growth might be common for this bacterium in its natural environment. This is a

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Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS:

* Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES ORIGINAL ARTICLES * Gray, D. A. et al. Extreme slow growth as alternative strategy to

survive deep starvation in bacteria. _Nat. Commun._ 10, 890 (2019) Article  Google Scholar  * Hausmann, B. et al. Long-term transcriptional activity at zero growth of a cosmopolitan rare

biosphere member. _mBio_ https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02189-18 (2019) Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  FURTHER READING * Bergkessel, M., Basta, D. & Newman, D. K. The

physiology of growth arrest: uniting molecular and environmental microbiology. _Nat. Rev. Microbiol._ 14, 549–562 (2016) Article  CAS  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION

AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Reviews Microbiology http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/ Ursula Hofer Authors * Ursula Hofer View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Ursula Hofer. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Hofer, U. Life in the slow

lane. _Nat Rev Microbiol_ 17, 266–267 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0176-7 Download citation * Published: 04 March 2019 * Issue Date: May 2019 * DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0176-7 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not

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