Optimality and extinction in a mutator model for host–parasite coevolution

Vladimir Suvorov and David B. Saakian

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2024, vol. 656, issue C

Abstract: We employed a mutator version of the quasispecies model to analyze the coevolution of host–parasite systems, where both are modeled with digital genomes and parasites recognize their hosts by matching. Specifically, they successfully identify the targets if their Hamming distance is sufficiently small. Mutations enable hosts to navigate through sequence space, thus evading parasite detection. We analytically solved the single-peak landscape scenario for this coevolving model. Our findings indicate that there is an optimal mutation rate for parasites that maximizes their survival, beyond which a critical mutation rate defines a threshold leading to parasite extinction.

Keywords: Complexity; Parasitism; Evolution; Phase transitions; Red queen dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437124007179
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:656:y:2024:i:c:s0378437124007179

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2024.130208

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().