Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Isolation of Fidelity Variants of RNA Viruses and Characterization of Virus Mutation Frequency
Published on: June 16, 2011
Phylogenetic evidence for the rapid evolution of human B19 erythrovirus
Laura A Shackelton1, Edward C Holmes
1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Human B19 erythrovirus is a ubiquitous viral pathogen, commonly infecting individuals before adulthood. As with all autonomous parvoviruses, its small single-stranded DNA genome is replicated with host cell machinery. While the mechanism of parvovirus genome replication has been studied in detail, the rate at which B19 virus evolves is unknown. By inferring the phylogenetic history and evolutionary dynamics of temporally sampled B19 sequences, we observed a surprisingly high rate of evolutionary change, at approximately 10(-4) nucleotide substitutions per site per year. This rate is more typical of RNA viruses and suggests that high mutation rates are characteristic of the Parvoviridae.
Related Concept Videos
Viral Mutations
The Evidence for Evolution
Retroviruses
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
Viral Recombination
Human Virome

