Multiple infection of cells changes the dynamics of basic viral evolutionary processes.

ABSTRACT: The infection of cells by multiple copies of a given virus can impact viral evolution in a variety of ways, yet some of the most basic evolutionary dynamics remain underexplored. Using computational models, we investigate how infection multiplicity affects the fixation probability of mutants, the rate of mutant generation, and the timing of mutant invasion. An important insight from these models is that for neutral and disadvantageous phenotypes, rare mutants initially enjoy a fitness advantage in the presence of multiple infection of cells. This arises because multiple infection allows the rare mutant to enter more target cells and to spread faster, while it does not accelerate the spread of the resident wild-type virus. The rare mutant population can increase by entry into both uninfecte

SUBMITTER: Wodarz D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6369963 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature