MICR3002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Atypical Pneumonia, Myxoma, European Rabbit
Document Summary
Constant change in a viral population in the face of selection pressure: darwinian selection. Viral populations display incredible diversity and capacity to adapt (hence the success: old viruses come and go, new viruses emerge. Mechanisms of diversity: mutation (intro-virus, quasispecies, recombination, reassortment (intervirus, gene capture (virus-host) Viral population comprise a diverse array of mutants: high fecundity = rapid adaption, the most rare genotype may be the most common after selection. There is no average virus that represent a population: experimental virus strains (cloned) may not represent clinical strains, different labs, different strains, different results, lot of diversity (always ongoing change) and variation. Researchers take consensus sequences (most common strain) but wt viruses are not all the same. Virus infected cells produce large numbers of progeny (fecundity ability to propagate in large amounts) As host populations evolve, virus populations adapt to the changing environment of the host: new niches, new viral populations emerge everyday, old viruses can learn new tricks .
