Cited by 157Evolution and Genetic DynamicsViral Infections and Immunology ResearchRNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

RNA Recombination Enhances Adaptability and Is Required for Virus Spread and Virulence

Open access
Xiao, Yinghong, Rouzine, Igor M., Bianco, Simone, Acevedo, Ashley, Goldstein, Elizabeth Faul, Farkov, Mikhail, Brodsky, Leonid, Andino, Raul·2016·Cell Host & Microbe

Abstract

Mutation and recombination are central processes driving microbial evolution. A high mutation rate fuels adaptation but also generates deleterious mutations. Recombination between two different genomes may resolve this paradox, alleviating effects of clonal interference and purging deleterious mutations. Here we demonstrate that recombination significantly accelerates adaptation and evolution during acute virus infection. We identified a poliovirus recombination determinant within the virus polymerase, mutation of which reduces recombination rates without altering replication fidelity. By generating a panel of variants with distinct mutation rates and recombination ability, we demonstrate that recombination is essential to enrich the population in beneficial mutations and purge it from deleterious mutations. The concerted activities of mutation and recombination are key to virus spread and virulence in infected animals. These findings inform a mathematical model to demonstrate that poliovirus adapts most rapidly at an optimal mutation rate determined by the trade-off between selection and accumulation of detrimental mutations.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.chom.2016.03.009

Cites

57 of 57 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Viral populations with reduced adaptation capacity yield viruses that are tissue restricted, and thus attenuated.

    “Indeed, viral populations with reduced adaptation capacity yield viruses that are tissue restricted, and thus attenuated (Xiao et al., 2017a, Xiao et al., 2016).”

    From Engineering the Live-Attenuated Polio Vaccine to Prevent Reversion to Virulence (2020) · cites this paper as Xiao et al., 2016

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Xiao, Y., Rouzine, I. M., Bianco, S., Acevedo, A., Goldstein, E. F., Farkov, M., Brodsky, L., & Andino, R.
Affiliations
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • IBM Research - Almaden (US)
  • University of Haifa (IL)
Corresponding author
Andino, Raul
Venue
Cell Host & Microbe
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2016-04
Volume
19
Issue
4
Pages
493-503
ISSN
1931-3128 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2335860311
Cited by
157
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6
FWCI
14.53
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
erratum (2017-09-13)
Open access
Locations
  • Cell Host & Microbe (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • NIH (R01, AI36178, AI40085, P01 AI091575)
  • University of California
  • DoD-DARPA
  • Irvin “Tack” Kuntz
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Viral Infections and Immunology Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
Keywords
RNA recombination, poliovirus, viral adaptation, mutation rate, deleterious mutations, clonal interference, purging of deleterious mutations, viral virulence, viral spread, acute viral infection
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Humans, Poliomyelitis, Recombination, Genetic, DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases, RNA, Viral, Selection, Genetic, Viral Proteins, Virulence, Virus Replication, Poliovirus, Evolution, Molecular

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review