2001/08/22 by Christel Kamp, Stefan Bornholdt
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio.PE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.88.068104
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002) 068104 · 4 pages RevTeX including 2 figures
arxiv created 2001/08/22 · openalex publication_date 2002/01/28 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Coevolution of two coupled quasispecies is studied, motivated by the competition between viral evolution and adapting immune response. In this coadaptive model, besides the classical error catastrophe for high virus mutation rates, a second "adaptation" catastrophe occurs, when virus mutation rates are too small to escape immune attack. Maximizing both regimes of viral error catastrophes is a possible strategy for an optimal immune response, reducing the range of allowed viral mutation rates to a minimum. From this requirement, one obtains constraints on B-cell mutation rates and receptor lengths, yielding an estimate of somatic hypermutation rates in the germinal center in accordance with observation.