Evolution of RNA viruses occurs through disequilibria of collections of closely related mutant
spectra or mutant clouds termed viral quasispecies. Here we review the origin of the …

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 …

Given the inherent dynamics of a viral quasispecies, we are often interested in the
comparison of diversity indices of sequential samples of a patient, or in the comparison of …

We previously characterized a foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) with three amino acid
replacements in its polymerase (3D) that conferred resistance to the mutagenic nucleoside …

Lethal mutagenesis aims at extinguishing viruses by increased mutagenesis prompted by
virus-specific mutagenic agents, mainly nucleoside analogues. It is derived from the error …

RNA viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, influenza virus, and
poliovirus replicate with very high mutation rates and exhibit very high genetic diversity. The …

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) has contributed to unveil some of the molecular
mechanisms of lethal mutagenesis, or loss of virus infectivity due to increased mutation …

Background Lethal mutagenesis is a transition towards virus extinction mediated by
enhanced mutation rates during viral genome replication, and it is currently under …

Lethal mutagenesis or virus transition into error catastrophe is an antiviral strategy that aims
at extinguishing a virus by increasing the viral mutation rates during replication. The …

Fitness of viruses has become a standard parameter to quantify their adaptation to a
biological environment. Fitness determinations for RNA viruses (and some highly variable …