A Branching Process for Virus Survival

2011/09/23 by Cox, J. Theodore, Schinazi, Rinaldo B. · 1 citation
#FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Mathematics #Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE) #Probability (math.PR)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1109.5124

Abstract

Quasispecies theory predicts that there is a critical mutation probability above which a viral population will go extinct. Above this threshold the virus loses the ability to replicate the best adapted genotype, leading to a population composed of low replicating mutants that is eventually doomed. We propose a new branching model that shows that this is not necessarily so. That is, a population composed of ever changing mutants may survive.

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