Transcriptional profiling of Mycobacterium abscessus under long-term stress conditions: PBS starvation and dormancy under potassium deficiency

This dataset presents the transcriptional profile of Mycobacterium abscessus exposed to long-term stress conditions that model physiological states encountered during persistent infection. RNA-seq analysis was performed on M. abscessus cultures subjected to PBS starvation and potassium (K?) deficiency, which simulate nutrient limitation and metabolic downregulation characteristic of dormant mycobacterial populations. Overall design: Differential gene expression was examined in Mycobacterium abscessus under long-term stress conditions compared to actively growing controls. The study investigated two distinct stress conditions: (1) PBS starvation, where bacteria were transferred to phosphate-buffered saline to induce nutrient limitation, and (2) potassium (K?) deficiency, where bacteria were cultured in media lacking adequate potassium to induce dormancy. A single set of actively growing bacterial cultures in complete media served as the control group for both stress conditions. RNA-seq was performed to analyze transcriptional changes between stressed bacteria and the control. All experimental conditions, including the control, were conducted in biological triplicates