Multi-level in vivo selection of the biocontrol agent Akanthomyces muscarius, virulence, growth, sporulation, and variant data

Changes in parasite virulence are commonly expected to lead to trade-offs in other life history traits that can affect fitness. Understanding these trade-offs is particularly important if we want to manipulate the virulence of microbial biological control agents. Theoretically, selection across different spatial scales, i.e. between- and within-hosts, shapes these trade-offs. However, trade-offs are also dependent on parasite biology. Despite their applied importance the evolution of virulence in fungal parasites is poorly understood: virulence can be unstable in culture and commonly fails to increase in simple passage experiments. We hypothesized that manipulating selection intensity at different scales would reveal virulence trade-offs in a fungal pathogen of aphids, Akanthomyces muscarius. Starting with a genetically diverse stock we selected for speed of kill, parasite yield, or infectivity by manipulating competition within and between hosts and between populations of hosts over 7 ..., , , # Multi-level in vivo selection of the biocontrol agent *Akanthomyces muscarius*, virulence, growth, sporulation, and variant data

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9s4mw6mpz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9s4mw6mpz)

Phenotypic and genomic data supporting the Plos Pathogens manuscript.

## Description of the data and file structure

Data are contained in 7 Excel files and 1 vcf file.

Treatment names: Within-host, between-host, and between-population are the same as speed, yield, and infectivity in some datasets.

trt columns refer to individually evolving replicates belonging to each treatment (trt_type).

**taqman_results_withrelfit_25032024:** Results of taqman assay, Sample BPI4 well E07 failed to amplify, hence NA values. FAM and VIC are fluorescence values for each corresponding dye. Content: cell description in software. Sample: sample name. Comb: a combination of competed lineages. Rep: replicate number. Treatment: Lineage belonging to each treatment competed against the common c...