Although VBNC bacteria lose culturability on normal culture medium, this does not mean that these cells are equivalent to dead cells. For example, the membrane of dead cells is damaged so that the genetic material in the cell cannot be preserved and expressed, while VBNC cells have a complete membrane structure that ensure the genetic information is not lost (Lahtinen et al., 2008). Moreover, while dead cells lose absorptive capacity and are metabolically inactive, Rahman et al. (1994) confirmed that VBNC Shigella can take up methionine for protein synthesis, thus demonstrating that bacteria in the VBNC state can exchange outside material.