Persister is a subpopulation of bacteria that can tolerate lethal doses of drugs in the bacterial population and survive in other stressful environment,it is ubiquitous in various species of bacteria, and even exists in some eukaryotes. It is phenotypic mutant that does not have genetic mutation and will not be killed by antimicrobial agents, which are considered by some scholars to be an adaptive and evolutionary form of bacteria. Persister resists the adverse stimulation of the external environment through a complex dormancy mechanism, recovery of proliferation after detaching the dormant state leads to the failure of clinical treatment, prolongation and recurrence of multiple infectious diseases, and enhancement of genetic resistance mutation, which poses a great challenge to the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, shows a great threat to human health. This article comprehensively summarizes the characteristics, mechanism and clinical treatment of persister, and provides new ideas and help for future research about persister.