This Research Topic, led by myself and Dr. Yang Deng, together with an editorial team including Dr. Xihong Zhao, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hanh, and Dr. Viduranga Y. Waisundara, contains a total of 24 excellent manuscripts. As the background of this topic was concerned, a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, a unique state in which a number of bacteria respond to adverse circumstances, was first discovered in 1982 (Xu et al., 1982), and has been extensively studied in bacteria, characterized by an inability of the cells to grow on culture media, even though they are still viable and maintain a detectable metabolic activity. Various environmental factors including temperature, the physiological age of the culture, salinity, the oxygen content, light, and ventilation can induce the entry of bacterial cells into a VBNC state.