Increase in error threshold for quasispecies by heterogeneous replication accuracy

In this paper we investigate the error threshold for quasispecies with heterogeneous replication accuracy. We show that the coexistence of error-free and error-prone polymerases can greatly increase the error threshold without a catastrophic loss of genetic information. We also show that the error threshold is influenced by the number of replicores. Our research suggests that quasispecies with heterogeneous replication accuracy can reduce the genetic cost of selective evolution while still producing a variety of mutants.