title: What Is a Quasispecies? Historical Origins and Current Scope.
abstract: The quasispecies concept is introduced by means of a simple theoretical model that uses as little chemical kinetics and mathematics as possible but fully in the spirit of Albert Einstein who said: "Things should be made as simple as possible but not simpler." More elaborate treatments follow in the forthcoming chapters. It is shown that the most important results of the theory, in particular the existence of error thresholds, are not dependent on simplifying assumptions concerning the distribution of fitness values. Error thresholds are regularly found on landscapes with large and irregular scatter of fitness. After the introduction to theory, it will be shown how experimental data on the evolution of molecules or viruses may be fit to the theoretical model.
authors: Centro de Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa" (CSIC-UAM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain. edomingo@cbm.csic.es.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Barcelona, Spain. edomingo@cbm.csic.es.
authors: Esteban
authors: E
authors: Domingo
authors: Institut für Theoretische Chemie der Universität Wien, Währingerstraβe 17, 1090, Vienna, Austria. pks@tbi.univie.ac.at.|The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA. pks@tbi.univie.ac.at.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Schuster
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D001695:Biology / Q000266:history; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D014773:Virology / Q000266:history; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*