Wilke:Major Results: Difference between revisions
(New page: {{WilkeMenu}} =Major Results= ==Survival of the Flattest== We have studied how RNA viruses can thrive at high mutation rates, and how they adapt to high mutation pressure. On the basis ...) |
(No difference)
|
Revision as of 20:11, 6 January 2010
The page you are looking at is kept for archival purposes and will not be further updated.
Major Results
Survival of the Flattest
We have studied how RNA viruses can thrive at high mutation rates, and how they adapt to high mutation pressure. On the basis of computer simulations, we have predicted that strains evolving under high mutation pressure trade replication speed for mutational robustness. Strains thus evolved can outcompete strains with much higher replication speed (or fecundity) but lower robustness to mutations. We have termed this effect survival of the flattest. Several groups have since observed this effect in laboratory populations of RNA-based pathogens, e.g. Codoner et al., PLoS Pathogens 2:e136, 2006; Sanjuan et al., PLoS Genetics 3:e93, 2007.
The broader importance of this work lies in its implications for lethal mutagenesis. According to prevailing thought, RNA viruses operate at their maximally tolerable mutation rate. If this were true, a slight increase in the mutation rate would be sufficient to kill any RNA virus under all circumstances. Instead, according to the survival-of-the-flattest effect, there are likely many cases in which a slight increase in mutation rate will lead to the evolution of a more robust virus, and more severe mutagenesis is necessary to achieve viral extinction.
