11Bacteria have long been recognized to be capable of entering a phenotypically non-12 growing persister state, in which the cells exhibit an extended regrowth lag and a 13 multidrug tolerance, thus posing a great challenge in treating infectious diseases. 14 Owing to their non-inheritability, low abundance of existence, lack of metabolic 15 activities, and high heterogeneity, properties of persisters remain poorly 16 understood. Here, we report our accidental discovery of a hitherto unreported 17 subcellular structure that we term the regrowth-delay body, which is formed only 18 in non-growing bacterial cells and sequesters multiple key proteins. As of now, 19 this structure, that dissolves when the cell resumes growth, is the most 20 distinguishable subcellular structure marking persisters. Our studies also indicate 21 2 that persisters exhibit different depth of persistence, as determined by the status 22 of their regrowth-delay bodies. Our findings imply that suppressing the formation 23 and/or promoting the dissolution of regrowth-delay bodies could be viable 24 strategies for eradicating persisters. 25 26