Related papers: A Selective Advantage for Conservative Viruses
We argue that the phenomenon of symmetry breaking in genetics can enhance the adaptability of a species to changes in the environment. In the case of a virus, the claim is that the codon bias in the neutralization epitope improves the…
Population expansions trigger many biomedical and ecological transitions, from tumor growth to invasions of non-native species. Although population spreading often selects for more invasive phenotypes, we show that this outcome is far from…
The vertebrate adaptive immune system provides a flexible and diverse set of molecules to neutralize pathogens. Yet, viruses such as HIV can cause chronic infections by evolving as quickly as the adaptive immune system, forming an…
Many biological networks have to filter out useful information from a vast excess of spurious interactions. We use computational evolution to predict design features of networks processing ligand categorization. The important problem of…
One strategy for winning a coevolutionary struggle is to evolve rapidly. Most of the literature on host-pathogen coevolution focuses on this phenomenon, and looks for consequent evidence of coevolutionary arms races. An alternative…
The adaptive immune system provides a diverse set of molecules that can mount specific responses against a multitude of pathogens. Memory is a key feature of adaptive immunity, which allows organisms to respond more readily upon…
The adaptive immune system engages in an arms race with evolving viruses, trying to generate new responses to viral strains that continually move away from the set of variants that have already elicited a functional immune response. In…
A problem is a multivalued function from a set of \emph{instances} to a set of \emph{solutions}. We consider only instances and solutions coded by sets of integers. A problem admits preservation of some computability-theoretic weakness…
We argue that immune system is an adaptive complex system. It is shown that it has emergent properties. Its network structure is of the small world network type. The network is of the threshold type, which helps in avoiding autoimmunity. It…
We examine a model of biological evolution of Eigen's quasispecies in a holey fitness landscape, where the fitness of a site is either 0 (lethal site) or a uniform positive constant (viable site). So, the evolution dynamics is determined by…
This paper presents a general overview on evolution of concealment methods in computer viruses and defensive techniques employed by anti-virus products. In order to stay far from the anti-virus scanners, computer viruses gradually improve…
The spread of infectious disease and the evolution of antigenically distinct strains are often modeled separately, despite strong feedbacks mediated by host immune memory and heterogeneous contacts. To tackle this challenging problem, we…
The probability that an advantageous mutant rises to fixation in a viral quasispecies is investigated in the framework of multi-type branching processes. Whether fixation is possible depends on the overall growth rate of the quasispecies…
We consider a predator-prey population model with prey gathering together for defense purposes. A transmissible unrecoverable disease affects the prey. We characterize the system behavior, establishing that ultimately either only the…
Prokaryotes have evolved various mechanisms to counter viruses, which in their turn developed numerous strategies to avoid defenses of the hosts. Dozens of such defense and counter-defense mechanisms have recently been discovered, yet the…
Vector-borne diseases often infect multiple host species, increasing the likelihood of disease persistence due to the presence of multiple reservoirs. Vector biting patterns and feeding preferences can shift in response to selective…
Natural Immune system plays a vital role in the survival of the all living being. It provides a mechanism to defend itself from external predates making it consistent systems, capable of adapting itself for survival incase of changes. The…
Viruses like influenza have long coevolved with host immune systems, gradually shaping the evolutionary trajectory of these pathogens. Host immune systems develop immunity against circulating strains, which in turn avoid extinction by…
This paper analyzes a simplified model of viral infection and evolution using the 'grand canonical ensemble' and formalisms from statistical mechanics and thermodynamics to enumerate all possible viruses and to derive thermodynamic…
During chronic infection, HIV-1 engages in a rapid coevolutionary arms race with the host's adaptive immune system. While it is clear that HIV exerts strong selection on the adaptive immune system, the characteristics of the somatic…