Models of RNA virus evolution and their roles in vaccine design

Ojosnegros, Samuel; Beerenwinkel, Niko

The mutation rate of RNA viruses is about a million times larger than the human mutation rate [6] . Thus, RNA viruses display a huge genetic diversity and this feature is critical for survival of the virus [7, 8] . Virus populations are exposed to fluctuating environments when migrating through different organs and tissues of the host organism and when exposed to immune responses mounted by the host. Transmission to a new host is typically associated with both traversing various tissues and facing new immune responses, and therefore it represents a major bottleneck for the virus population. The genetic diversity of RNA viruses makes it likely that adapted variants preexist in the population even before the selective pressure has changed [9, 10] .