Selection for phage resistance reduces virulence of Shigella flexneri .

There is increasing interest in phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, especially using phages that select for evolutionary trade-offs between increased phage resistance and decreased fitness traits such as virulence in target bacteria. A vast repertoire of virulence factors allows the opportunistic bacterial pathogen, Shigella flexneri , to invade human gut epithelial cells, replicate intracellularly,...