Quasispecies diversity determines pathogenesis through cooperative interactions in a viral population

Marco Vignuzzi, Jeffrey K. Stone, Jamie J. Arnold, Craig E. Cameron and Raul Andino ()
Additional contact information
Marco Vignuzzi: University of California
Jeffrey K. Stone: University of California
Jamie J. Arnold: Pennsylvania State University
Craig E. Cameron: Pennsylvania State University
Raul Andino: University of California

Nature, 2006, vol. 439, issue 7074, 344-348

Abstract: Viruses, where wrong is right The replication of RNA viruses is associated with a higher mutation rate than is seen in organisms using DNA as their genetic material. This can produce nonviable individuals but also, it has been suggested, some useful variation that could enhance the fitness of virus populations by allowing them to adapt to changing environments encountered during infection. Until now there has been no experimental support for this suggestion, known as the ‘quasispecies’ hypothesis. But now a search for viruses that copy their genome too accurately has provided support for this idea. Poliovirus isolates carrying a ‘super accurate’ RNA polymerase are less varied and less infectious than normal viruses. These results could have implications for the development of antiviral drugs.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04388 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7074:d:10.1038_nature04388

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04388

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().