Quasispecies as a matter of fact: Viruses and beyond
Abstract
We review the origins of the quasispecies concept and its relevance for RNA virus evolution, viral pathogenesis and antiviral treatment strategies. We emphasize a critical point of quasispecies that refers to genome collectivities as the unit of selection, and establish parallels between RNA viruses and some cellular systems such as bacteria and tumor cells. We refer also to tantalizing new observations that suggest quasispecies behavior in prions, perhaps as a result of the same quantum-mechanical indeterminations that underlie protein conformation and error-prone replication in genetic systems. If substantiated, these observations with prions could lead to new research on the structure–function relationship of non-nucleic acid biological molecules.
Additional Information
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. Available online 16 September 2011. Dedicated to Dr. Brian W.J. Mahy for his fruitful activity as Editor-in-Chief of Virus Research, and for his support to the research on foot-and-mouth disease virus and quasispecies carried out at Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa. We thank many colleagues who over the years have constructively contributed to unveil the relevance of quasispecies for viruses, in particular the late Christof Biebricher, Manfred Eigen, John J. Holland, and Simon Wain-Hobson for friendship and support. Work at CBMSO supported by grant BFU2008-02816/BMC from MICINN, Proyecto Intramural de Frontera del CSIC 200820FO191, FIPSE 36558/06, and Fundación Ramón Areces. Work at Centro Regional de Investigaciones Biomédicas (Universidad de Castilla La Mancha) supported by grants PPII10-0243-6857 from Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha, and BFU2010-18767/BMC from MICINN. CIBERehd is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. CP is the recipient of a contract from CIBERehd. SO is a postdoctoral fellow from MICINN.Attached Files
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC7172439
- Eprint ID
- 29043
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.virusres.2011.09.018
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20120131-112624464
- BFU2008-02816/BMC
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
- CSIC 200820FO191
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
- FIPSE 36558/06
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
- Fundación Ramón Areces
- PPII10-0243-6857
- Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha
- BFU2010-18767/BMC
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
- CIBERehd
- Created
-
2012-01-31Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2022-02-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field