Month: September 2022

MORPHING GENOMES. “Viral quasispecies are currently defined as collections of closely related viral genomes subjected to a continuous process of genetic variation, competition among the variants generated, and selection of the most fit distributions in a given environment.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

MUTANT SWARMS. “Two key parameters that explain the biological relevance of the rapid formation of mutant swarms during viral replication are the rate at which mutations are introduced during RNA genome copying, and the genome size.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

DRIVING FACTORS. “Formation of mutant spectra with an abundance of single point mutants (and gradually decreasing proportions of double, triple and multiple mutants) is a necessary consequence of the mutation rate-genome size relationship.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

UNIT OF SELECTION. “A realization of recent years is that mutant swarms are not mere collections of mutants ranked by a mutation-selection balance that act independently of each other. Rather, very often the mutant ensemble acts as a unit of selection due to interactions among its members.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

HUMAN VERSUS VIRUS. "We might like to think of ourselves as the most “highly evolved” species but, in terms of how many rounds of mutation and selection we’ve undergone, we are one of the least evolved species. Around 10 billion new viral particles can be produced every day in the body of a person infected with HIV. By contrast, the total human population on Earth was no more than a few million until a few thousand years ago." https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13640-evolution-myths-evolution-produces-perfectly-adapted-creatures/ View in LinkedIn

HYPER-ADAPTION. "This extraordinarily high rate of evolution allows viruses to escape from host immunity and rapidly adapt to a new host when they cross species." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215000549 View in LinkedIn

MILLION TIMES EVOLUTION. "Viruses are arguably the fastest-evolving biological entity on this planet. Many of them evolve at a rate in the order of 10(−3) substitutions per site per year (s/n/y). This is approximately a million times faster than the rates of evolution of cellular host organisms, typically around 10(−9) s/n/y.” No mean achievement. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215000549 View in LinkedIn

ULTRA-QUICK GENERATION TIMES. "Many viruses, especially RNA viruses, rapidly accumulate genetic variation because of short generation times and high mutation rates. Patterns of viral genetic variation are therefore heavily influenced by how quickly transmission occurs and by which entities transmit to one another." https://lnkd.in/dDjCWve View in LinkedIn

PAST BIASES. "Patterns of viral genetic variation will also be affected by selection acting on viral phenotypes. Although viruses can differ with respect to many phenotypes, phylodynamic studies have to date tended to focus on a limited number of viral phenotypes." https://lnkd.in/dDjCWve View in LinkedIn

NEW STAR TREES. "Rapid expansion of a virus in a population will be reflected by a “star-like” tree, in which external branches are long relative to internal branches." https://lnkd.in/dDjCWve View in LinkedIn