Mutualism, parasitism and competition in the evolution of coviruses.
Coviruses are viruses with the property that their genetic information is divided up among two or more different viral particles. I model the evolution of coviruses using information on both viral virulence and the interactions between viruses and molecules that parasitize them: satellite viruses, satellite RNAs and defective interfering viruses. The model ultimately, and inevitably contains within it single-species dynamics as well as mutualistic, parasitic, cooperative and competitive relationships. The model shows that coexistence between coviruses and the self-sufficient viruses that spawned them is unlikely, in the sense that the quantitative conditions for coexistence are not easy to satisfy I also describe an abrupt transition from mutualistic two-species to single-species dynamics, showing a new sense in which questions such as 'Is a lichen one species or two?' can be given a definite answer.
Nee
S
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Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK. sean.nee@ed.ac.uk
D000818:Animals; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000502:physiology*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D019244:RNA, Satellite / Q000502:physiology*; D012526:Satellite Viruses / Q000502:physiology*
D019244:RNA, Satellite