Multidrug tolerance

Multidrug tolerance or antibiotic tolerance is the ability of a disease-causing microorganism to resist killing by antibiotics or other antimicrobials. It is mechanistically distinct from multidrug resistance: It is not caused by mutant microbes, but rather by microbial cells that exist in a transient, dormant, non-dividing state. Microorganisms that display multidrug tolerance can be bacteria, fungi or parasites.