Quasispecies Theory and the Behavior of RNA Viruses
By A. Lauring, Raul Andino. PLoS Pathogens, 2010
832 citations recorded by the source corpus.
A large number of medically important viruses, including HIV, hepatitis C virus, and influenza, have RNA genomes. These viruses replicate with extremely high mutation rates and exhibit significant genetic diversity. This diversity allows a viral population to rapidly adapt to dynamic environments and evolve resistance to vaccines and antiviral drugs. For the last 30 years, quasispecies theory has provided a population-based framework for understanding RNA viral evolution. A quasispecies is a cloud of diverse variants that are genetically linked through mutation, interact cooperatively on a functional level, and collectively contribute to the characteristics of the population. Many predictions of quasispecies theory run counter to traditional views of microbial behavior and evolution and have profound implications for our understanding of viral disease. Here, we discuss basic principles of quasispecies theory and describe its relevance for our understanding of viral fitness, virulence, and antiviral therapeutic strategy.
Subfields: Genetics, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d18dc86f9c5b9cd3e7416a0d332a7e1a348a0565
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In Genetics
Citations in the corpus
- LoFreq: a sequence-quality aware, ultra-sensitive variant caller for uncovering cell-population heterogeneity from high-throughput sequencing datasets (2012, background): “RNA viruses have high mutation rates (due to poor or missing proof-reading capability of the viral RNA-dependent DNA polymerase) and high replication rates, and the resulting intra-host variations have implications for drug treatment strategies (25) and the genetic monitoring of live vaccines (26).”
- The Impact of Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Spike on Viral Infectivity and Antigenicity (2020, neutral): “RNA viruses are known to have higher mutation rates than DNA viruses (Duffy, 2018; Lauring and Andino, 2010).”