Correction to: Nature Microbiology https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0627-y, published online 9 December 2019.

In the version of this Letter originally published, the authors mistakenly failed to include the following two references that have now been added as refs. 18 and 32:

18. Kwan, B. W., Valenta, J. A., Benedik, M. J. & Wood, T. K. Arrested protein synthesis increases persister-like cell formation. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 57, 1468–1473 (2013).

32. Hong, S. H., Wang, X., O'Connor, H. F., Benedik, M. J. & Wood, T. K. Bacterial persistence increases as environmental fitness decreases. Microb. Biotechnol. 5, 509–522 (2012).

Reference 18 has been cited in the sentence beginning “In addition, several studies have shown that...” and ref. 32 has been cited in the sentence beginning “They include studies suggesting that...”. All subsequent references have been renumbered accordingly.