Pheromone cCF10 Enhances Persister Formation in Enterococcus faecalis via Transcriptomic Changes
Jingxue Qian·Zhigang Qiu·Rumeng Li·Man Zhang·Ruolin Hao·Qing He·Lin Xu·Zhiqiang Shen·Jingfeng Wang·Feilong Sun·Xiaobo Yang
Bacterial persistence, a non-heritable high-antibiotic-tolerance phenotype, is a key driver of recurrent clinical infections and antibiotic treatment failure. The pheromone-responsive pCF10 plasmid in Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) mediates antibiotic resistance gene dissemination, but its role in bacterial persister formation remains unclear. This study systematically investigated the regulatory role of pheromone cCF10 in the persister phenotype of pCF10-carrying E. faecalis and its underl