English

A Branching Process for Virus Survival

Probability 2011-09-26 v1 Populations and Evolution

Abstract

Quasispecies theory predicts that there is a critical mutation probability above which a viral population will go extinct. Above this threshold the virus loses the ability to replicate the best adapted genotype, leading to a population composed of low replicating mutants that is eventually doomed. We propose a new branching model that shows that this is not necessarily so. That is, a population composed of ever changing mutants may survive.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1109.5124,
  title  = {A Branching Process for Virus Survival},
  author = {J. Theodore Cox and Rinaldo B. Schinazi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.5124},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:09:26.272Z