Table 1 Terms used to describe “vitality states” of microorganisms (from[8])

Acclimation [30]

“Quiescent cells” [17]

Active microbes [20]

Resuscitation [3, 4, 15, 24, 28–31]

Alive, “aliveness” [15]

“Shut down cells”, “shut down state” [17]

“Anabiotic (dormant) state” [15]

Somnicells [8, 11, 30]

“Bags of enzymes” [4, 12]

Starvation [10, 17, 29]

Cryptic growth [24, 26, 27, 29]

– “True starvation” [15]

Culturable, culturability [4, 10, 11, 31]

“Substrate accelerated death”, “substrate

– Nonculturable, nonculturability [22, 24]

Accelerated stress” [6, 15, 26, 29, 31, 33]

Debilitation [9]

Survival [5, 11, 20, 22, 29]

Dead, death [3, 4, 9, 11, 15, 16, 20, 26],[29]

– “Survivability” [3]

– “Death phase” [15, 29]

– “Stasis survival” [25]

“Die-off” [31]

Viable [3, 10, 15, 16, 18, 30, 31]

Direct viable count (DVC), DVC method [3, 4, 10, 15, 18, 29–31, 34]

– Non viable [3, 15, 16, 20]

Viability [3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16],[19, 22, 23, 26, 29]

Dormant, dormancy [11, 12, 15, 20, 23, 28–30, 32]

– “Apparent viability” [6, 15]

– “Progressive dormancy” [1, 30]

– “Reproductive viability” [23]

– “Vegetative dormancy” [15]

– “True viability” [6]

Dwarf cells, inactive dwarfs, ultramicrobacteria [6, 14, 15, 29, 32]

“Viable but nonculturable” (VBNC) [3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 21],[22]

Growth arrest [25]

– VBNC hypothesis [2–4, 7]

“Killer phenotype” [15]

– VBNC state [3, 4, 10, 22, 24, 29, 31, 33],[34]

Lysis [20]

– “Viable but nonrecoverable” [31]

Moribund cells [29]

– “Non-viable but resuscitable” [16]

'Nonplateable" [24]

– “Unculturable but viable” [28]

Protistan grazing [11]

Vital, vitality [15, 16, 26]

“Pseudosenescent” [29]

Viviform [11, 30]

References:

¹ Barcina et al. 1989 [24]

¹⁸ Kogure et al. 1979 [40]

² Barer et al. 1993 [25]

¹⁹ Korber et al. 1996 [41]

³ Bogosian et al. 1996 [26]

²⁰ Mason et al. 1986 [1]

⁴ Bogosian et al. 1998 [27]

²¹ McKay 1992[42]

⁵ Bowden & Hamilton 1998 [28]

²² Morgan et al. 1993 [43]

⁶ Button et al. 1993 [29]

²³ Nebe-von Caron et al. 1998 [44]

⁷ Colwell 1993[30]

²⁴ Nilsson et al. 1991 [45]

⁸ Colwell et al. 1985[31]

²⁵ Nyström 1995[46]

⁹ Dawe & Penrose 1978[32]

²⁶ Postgate 1977[47]

¹⁰ Duncan et al. 1994[33]

²⁷ Postgate & Hunter 1962[48]

¹¹ Gonzáles et al. 1992[34]

²⁸ Rose et al. 1990 [49]

¹² Gribbon & Barer 1995 [35]

²⁹ Roszak & Colwell 1987a [2]

¹³ Höfle 1983[36]

³⁰ Roszak & Colwell 1987b [50]

¹⁴ Hood et al. 1987 [37]

³¹ Roszak et al. 1984 [51]

¹⁵ Kaprelyants et al. 1993 [4]

³² Stevenson 1978[52]

¹⁶ Kell et al. 1991 [38]

³³ Whitesides & Oliver 1997[53]

¹⁷ Koch 1996 [39]

³⁴ Wilson & Lindow 1992 [54]