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Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses

Despite having very limited coding capacity, RNA viruses are able to withstand challenge of antiviral drugs, cause epidemics in previously exposed human populations, and, in some cases, infect multiple host species. They are able to achieve this by virtue of their ability to multiply very rapidly, c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barr, J.N., Fearns, R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149711/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803309-8.00002-1
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author Barr, J.N.
Fearns, R.
author_facet Barr, J.N.
Fearns, R.
author_sort Barr, J.N.
collection PubMed
description Despite having very limited coding capacity, RNA viruses are able to withstand challenge of antiviral drugs, cause epidemics in previously exposed human populations, and, in some cases, infect multiple host species. They are able to achieve this by virtue of their ability to multiply very rapidly, coupled with their extraordinary degree of genetic heterogeneity. RNA viruses exist not as single genotypes, but as a swarm of related variants, and this genomic diversity is an essential feature of their biology. RNA viruses have a variety of mechanisms that act in combination to determine their genetic heterogeneity. These include polymerase fidelity, error-mitigation mechanisms, genomic recombination, and different modes of genome replication. RNA viruses can vary in their ability to tolerate mutations, or “genetic robustness,” and several factors contribute to this. Finally, there is evidence that some RNA viruses exist close to a threshold where polymerase error rate has evolved to maximize the possible sequence space available, while avoiding the accumulation of a lethal load of deleterious mutations. We speculate that different viruses have evolved different error rates to complement the different “life-styles” they possess.
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spelling pubmed-71497112020-04-13 Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses Barr, J.N. Fearns, R. Genome Stability Article Despite having very limited coding capacity, RNA viruses are able to withstand challenge of antiviral drugs, cause epidemics in previously exposed human populations, and, in some cases, infect multiple host species. They are able to achieve this by virtue of their ability to multiply very rapidly, coupled with their extraordinary degree of genetic heterogeneity. RNA viruses exist not as single genotypes, but as a swarm of related variants, and this genomic diversity is an essential feature of their biology. RNA viruses have a variety of mechanisms that act in combination to determine their genetic heterogeneity. These include polymerase fidelity, error-mitigation mechanisms, genomic recombination, and different modes of genome replication. RNA viruses can vary in their ability to tolerate mutations, or “genetic robustness,” and several factors contribute to this. Finally, there is evidence that some RNA viruses exist close to a threshold where polymerase error rate has evolved to maximize the possible sequence space available, while avoiding the accumulation of a lethal load of deleterious mutations. We speculate that different viruses have evolved different error rates to complement the different “life-styles” they possess. 2016 2016-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7149711/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803309-8.00002-1 Text en Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Barr, J.N.
Fearns, R.
Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses
title Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses
title_full Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses
title_fullStr Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses
title_full_unstemmed Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses
title_short Genetic Instability of RNA Viruses
title_sort genetic instability of rna viruses
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149711/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803309-8.00002-1
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