Retraction Note: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07861-z, published online 3 January 2019.

The authors are retracting this Article as we are unable to reproduce all of the original findings in the paper except those relating to an increase in persister levels in wild-type Pseudomonas aeruginosa. At this time we are unable to elucidate the specific explanation for this, however, this finding does now undermine our full confidence in the conclusions presented in this study and we feel it is best to retract the Article at this stage. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to the readers.

All the authors agree with the retraction.