quasispecies

This ensemble of closely related RNAs is called a quasispecies.

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HIV-1 operates as a 'quasispecies', that is, a large population of genetically distinct, yet related organisms.

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It is easy to see why the idea of the quasispecies, a grouping of slightly different but related RNA molecules, is so powerful.

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There are other important consequences of quasispecies theory.

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Moreover, the highest peak may not correspond to the fittest quasispecies, as will become clear.

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But Eigen and Schuster argued that the target of natural selection is not the fittest sequence but the fittest quasispecies.

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When Eigen and Schuster introduced quasispecies theory in the late 1970s, they created new opportunities to understand life and evolution.

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In this way, natural selection picks the fittest cloud of RNAs quasispecies rather than the fittest RNA sequence itself.

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There is a critical mutation rate, below which A is the winner, but above which B and its neighbors are favored, and this can be worked out with the “quasispecies equation.”

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This is an important distinction because the fittest sequence may only represent a very small fraction of the quasispecies.

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