Heterogeneous survival upon disinfection underlies evolution of increased tolerance

evolved increased tolerance to substances for which persisters were predicted (BAC and ISO), whereas adaptation failed for substances in which no persisters were predicted (GTA and CHX), causing extinction of exposed populations. Our findings have implications for the risk of disinfection failure, highlighting a potential link between persistence to disinfectants and the ability to evolve disinfectant survival mechanisms. IMPORTANCE: when exposed to six different disinfectants. We find that the level of persistence, and with this the risk for disinfection failure, depends on the disinfectant. Importantly, evolution experiments under recurrent disinfection provide evidence that links the presence of persisters to the ability to evolve reduced susceptibility to disinfectants. This study emphasizes the impact of heterogeneity within bacterial populations on disinfection outcomes and the potential consequences for the evolution of antimicrobial resistances.