More evolvable bacteriophages better suppress their host

The number of multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria is increasing rapidly, while the number of new antibiotic discoveries has stagnated. This trend has caused a surge in interest in bacteriophages as anti-bacterial therapeutics, in part because there is near limitless diversity of phages to harness. While this diversity provides an opportunity, it also creates the dilemma of having to decide which criteria to use to select phages. Here we test whether a phage’s ability to coevolve with its host (evolvability) should be considered and how this property compares to two previously proposed criteria: fast reproduction and thermostability. To do this, we compared the suppressiveness of three phages that vary by a single amino acid yet differ in these traits such that each strain maximized two of three characteristics. Our studies revealed that both evolvability and reproductive rate are independently important. The phage most able to suppress bacterial populations was the strain with high ..., Most data were gained through basic microbiology techniques: colony counts on agar plates, plaque forming units on soft agar pverlay plates, and genotype identification on indicator plates., , # Data from: More evolvable bacteriophages better suppress their host

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f56w](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f56w)

The majority of the data are derived from measuring phage and bacterial population dynamics through enumerating densities over time via direct colony or plaque counts. There are a few exceptions. Figure 1 data was previously published (see link in 'Sharing/Access information' section and Table S1). Figure 3D data are frequencies of different colony morphologies enumerated by counting colonies of different phenotypes on indicator plates. Figure S4 is of growth rates which are based on counting density changes of plaque forming units over time.  

## Description of the data and file structure

Bacterial titers reported in Figure 2  are phage titers for Figure S1 are provided in a single file '(080121)Figure2-counts(FINAL).csv'. Bacterial and phage densities are provided in a column 'Titers', which are computed through multiplying the ad...