A New Phase of Bacteria Life Cycle：Long-term Stationary Phase

Abstract:

The traditional view of bacterial life cycle consists of four phases，namely，lag phase，exponential or logarithmic phase，stationary phase and death phase.Although the standard textbook description of the bacterial life cycle has been useful，might not always provide us the whole visage of bacteria growth process.Recently，it has demonstrated that bacterial life cycle is expanded to five phases.It is a significant different growth phase after death phase：long-term stationary phase，which may be more akin to the nature environment in which microorganisms exist.Microbial cells survive due to mutating，and forming growth advantage during stationary phase (GASP) phenotype in this phase.It is very important for further study the microorganisms in this phase.

Key words:Long-term stationary phase，Life cycle，Growth advantage during stationary phase (GASP)