quasispecies made simple准物种做了简单的.pdfVIP

Review Quasispecies Made Simple J. J. Bull, Lauren Ancel Meyers, Michael Lachmann* ABSTRACT plagued primordial life [1] and currently challenges extant viruses with RNA genomes [3]. The error-catastrophe model uasispecies are clouds of genotypes that appear in a inspired treatments to extirpate viral populations by Qpopulation at mutation–selection balance. This mutation enhancement [4,5], and the model has been concept has recently attracted the attention of generalized to explain the attraction of populations to virologists, because many RNA viruses appear to mutationally robust regions of fitness landscapes [6]. The generate high levels of genetic variation that may enhance the error catastrophe has imparted a mystique to the quasispecies evolution of drug resistance and immune escape. The concept, and much of the literature on RNA virus evolution literature on these important evolutionary processes is, now uses quasispecies as an enriched synonym for a high however, quite challenging. Here we use simple models to link mutation rate. An excellent and short review of the topic and mutation–selection balance theory to the most novel its relationship to population genetics theory is provided by property of quasispecies: the error threshold—a mutation Wilke [7]. rate below which populations equilibrate in a traditional Eigen’s insights were developed in the context of genomes mutation–selection balance and above which the population with many loci, each of which suffered mutation. experiences an error catastrophe,