LAT and tuberculosis: A 5-week-long incubation in the adapted biofilm system permitted gradual enrichment with PLB through three stages: initiation (days 0–16), accretion (days 16–28), and maturation (day 28 and after), which were defined by the slope of crystal violet (CV) staining kinetics, tolerance against first-line TB drugs isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RIF), and mRNA expression kinetics of lat, a validated transcriptional marker of Mtb persisters7,35 (Supplementary Fig. 1b–e).