title: Selective advantage for conservative viruses.
abstract: In this article we study the full semiconservative treatment of a model for the coevolution of a virus and an adaptive immune system. Regions of viability are calculated for both conservatively and semiconservatively replicating viruses interacting with a realistic semiconservatively replicating immune system. The conservative virus is found to have a selective advantage in the form of an ability to survive in regions with a wider range of mutation rates than its semiconservative counterpart, as well as an increased replication rate where both species can survive. This may help explain the existence of a rich range of viruses with conservatively replicating genomes, a trait that is found nowhere else in nature.
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Yisroel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Brumer
authors.forename: Eugene I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Shakhnovich
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000502:physiology*; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*