Application of Continuous Culture for Assessing Antibiotic Activity Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

There is a proportion of the M. tuberculosis population that is refractory to the bactericidal action of antituberculosis antibiotics due to phenotypic tolerance. This tolerance can be impacted by environmental stimuli and the subsequent physiological state of the organism. It may be the result of preexisting populations of slow growing/non replicating bacteria that are protected from antibiotic action. It still remains unclear how the slow growth of M. tuberculosis contributes to antibiotic resistance and antibiotic tolerance. Here, we present a method for assessing the activity of antibiotics against M. tuberculosis using continuous culture, which is the only system that can be used to control bacterial growth rate and study the impact of slow or fast growth on the organism's response to antibiotic exposure.