microbial cyst
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Encyclopedic overview
Cyst stage of Entamoeba histolytica Cyst of Artemia salina
A microbial cyst is a resting or dormant stage of a microorganism, that can be thought of as a state of suspended animation in which the metabolic processes of the cell are slowed and the cell ceases all activities like feeding and locomotion. Many groups of single-celled, microscopic organisms, or microbes, possess the ability to enter this dormant state.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “microbial cyst” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.