What is a quasispecies?
Abstract
A quasispecies is a well-defined distribution of mutants that is generated by a mutation-selection process. Selection does not act on a single mutant but on the quasispecies as a whole. Experimental systems have been designed to study quasispecies evolution under laboratory conditions. More recently, virus populations have been called quasispecies to indicate their extensive genetic heterogeneity. The most prominent examples are probably the human immunodeficiency viruses HIV-1 and HIV-2. The quasispecies nature of HIV has formed the basis of a model that provides a mechanism for the pathogenesis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. This article focuses on the nature of the quasispecies concept and its implications for evolutionary biology and virology.
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Composomes are analogous to quasi-species, whereby the target of selection is not an individual mutant sequence but the whole quasi-species.
“In undergoing selection as a cloud of similar compositions, composomes are in fact analogous to quasi-species, as we have shown [62], whereby ‘the target of selection is not an individual mutant sequence but the whole quasi-species' [109, p. 121].”
From Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks (2018) · cites this paper as [109]
Cites
Selforganization of matter and the evolution of biological macromolecules
Eigen, M. (1971) · Die Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/bf00623322 · Cited by 3,788 · see citing works
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Domingo, E., Sheldon, J., & Perales, C. (2012) · Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews · doi:10.1128/mmbr.05023-11 · Cited by 1,009 · see citing works
Diversification of self-replicating molecules
Sadownik, J. W., Mattia, E., Nowak, P., & Otto, S. (2016) · Nature Chemistry · doi:10.1038/nchem.2419 · Cited by 214 · see citing works
Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks
Lancet, D., Zidovetzki, R., & Markovitch, O. (2018) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2018.0159 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
SELECTION FOR FITNESS VERSUS SELECTION FOR ROBUSTNESS IN RNA SECONDARY STRUCTURE FOLDING
Wilke, C. O. (2001) · Evolution · doi:10.1111/j.0014-3820.2001.tb00756.x · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Error Thresholds in Genetic Algorithms
Ochoa, G. (2006) · Evolutionary Computation · doi:10.1162/evco.2006.14.2.157 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Selection for replicases in protocells
Bianconi, G., Zhao, K., Chen, I. A., & Nowak, M. A. (2013) · PLoS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003051 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citationQuasispecies-like behavior observed in catalytic RNA populations evolving in a test tube
Diaz Arenas, C., & Lehman, N. (2010) · BMC Evolutionary Biology · doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-80 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Evaluating the structure-coefficient theorem of evolutionary game theory
McAvoy, A., & Wakeley, J. (2022) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2119656119 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Manapat, M., Ohtsuki, H., Bürger, R., & Nowak, M. A. (2009) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.10.006 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Nowak, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Nowak, Martin A.
- ORCID
- Nowak, Martin A.
- Venue
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1992-04
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 118-121
- ISSN
- 0169-5347 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2016766059
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 0.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Keywords
- quasispecies, mutation-selection balance, genetic heterogeneity, HIV-1, HIV-2, AIDS pathogenesis, viral evolution, experimental evolution, population genetics
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