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Updated: Oct 13, 2026

Isolation of Fidelity Variants of RNA Viruses and Characterization of Virus Mutation Frequency
Published on: June 16, 2011
Effect of deleterious mutation-accumulation on the fitness of RNA bacteriophage MS2
M de la Peña1, S F Elena, A Moya
1Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biología Evolutiva, Universitat de València, Spain.
Abstract:
RNA viruses show the highest mutation rate in nature. It has been extensively demonstrated that, in the absence of purifying selection, RNA viruses accumulate deleterious mutations at a high rate. However, the parameters describing this accumulation are, in general, poorly understood. The present study reports evidences for fitness declines by the accumulation of deleterious mutations in the bacteriophage MS2. We estimated the rate of fitness decline to be as high as 16% per bottleneck transfer. In addition, our results agree with an additive model of fitness effects.
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