Table 1.

Phage-Centric Summary of CSR Strategies

Category	Strengths	Phage centric summary of strategies
C	Competition	Effective when bacterial conditions are good. Their large proportion of early genes can “tune” the cell to establish the conditions that they need to replicate efficiently.
S	Stress	After successful infection—when the phage is in the cell, it can sense the environment and can respond to a wide array of conditions.
R	Fluctuating conditions	Can cope with fluctuating conditions and do not need to invest in reprogramming the cell to the same extent—potentially they are quick in-and-out phages.
CS	Competition and stress	Can cope with competition from other phages even when their environment is stressed.
CR	Competition and fluctuating conditions	Can cope with competition from other phages even when their environment is disturbed.
SR	Stress and fluctuating conditions	After successful infection—when a phage is in a cell, it can sense the environment and can respond to cope with a wide array of conditions even if they are disturbed.
CSR	Good all-rounder	This is your “jack of all trades but master of none” phage—it can tolerate many conditions but would not fare well against the single or dual phages in their preferred environment.