"Viral evolution is a subfield of evolutionary biology and virology that is specifically concerned with the evolution of viruses."
The genetic and phenotypic changes that occur over time in viral populations, driven by mutation, recombination, selection and adaptation to different hosts or environments.
Viruses: An Introduction: A basic overview of viruses, their structure, replication, and classification.
Pathogenesis: The study of how viruses cause disease, including host immune response, tissue damage, and co-infection.
Host-virus Interactions: Understanding the interaction between the host and the virus including how the immune system responds to different viral infections.
Evolutionary Mechanisms: Understanding the evolution of viruses including mutation, recombination, and reassortment.
Genetic Diversity: Understanding the genetic diversity of viruses including replication rates and proofreading abilities of different strains.
Epidemics and Pandemics: The study of how viral pandemics and epidemics arise in populations through person-to-person transmission and how they can be controlled through public health measures.
Ecology of Viruses: The study of the distribution of viruses and their interactions with the environment including the role of viruses in ecosystem health and sustainability.
Control and Prevention of Viral Infections: Developing strategies to prevent the spread of viral infections including surveillance, vaccination, and public health interventions.
Viral Diagnostics: The study of how viral infections can be diagnosed, including molecular and serological methods.
Emerging Viruses: The study of newly discovered viruses that pose a potential threat to human health.
Evolutionary Analysis: The use of genetic analysis to understand the evolutionary history of viral populations.
Viral Host Range: Understanding the range of different viruses in different hosts and how they evolve to affect different hosts.
Genetic Drift: It is a random process of genetic variation that occurs over time due to chance events. This can lead to changes in viral genomes that are not influenced by selection pressures.
Recombination: It is the process by which genes from two different viruses can combine to form a new virus with a unique genome. This can occur when viruses infect the same cell and exchange genetic material during replication.
Mutation: It is the process by which changes occur in the genetic material of the virus. These changes can occur randomly or can be caused by exposure to various factors like radiation, chemicals, and other environmental stresses.
Convergent Evolution: It is a process by which two unrelated viruses evolve similar characteristics in response to similar environmental pressures or selection forces.
Coevolution: It is the process by which two or more species evolve in response to each other, in a way that their fates are linked. In the case of viruses, this refers to the evolution of viruses and their hosts.
Antigenic Drift and Shift: It is the process by which a virus undergoes changes in the surface proteins (antigens) that enable it to evade the host immune system. Antigenic drift refers to small changes that occur gradually over time, while antigenic shift refers to sudden, dramatic changes.
Selective Pressure: It is the process by which a particular trait or set of traits is favored by natural selection, leading to the evolution of that trait or set of traits in the viral population.
"The rapid rate of viral mutation combined with natural selection allows viruses to quickly adapt to changes in their host environment."
"Viruses have short generation times, and many, in particular RNA viruses, have relatively high mutation rates (on the order of one point mutation or more per genome per round of replication)."
"Although most viral mutations confer no benefit and often even prove deleterious to viruses..."
"Because viruses typically produce many copies in an infected host, mutated genes can be passed on to many offspring quickly."
"Viral evolution is an important aspect of the epidemiology of viral diseases such as influenza (influenza virus), AIDS (HIV), and hepatitis (e.g., HCV)."
"The rapidity of viral mutation also causes problems in the development of successful vaccines and antiviral drugs, as resistant mutations often appear within weeks or months after the beginning of a treatment."
"One of the main theoretical models applied to viral evolution is the quasispecies model..."
"The quasispecies model defines a viral quasispecies as a group of closely related viral strains competing within an environment."
"Viruses have short generation times, and many, in particular RNA viruses, have relatively high mutation rates..."
"Although the chance of mutations and evolution can change depending on the type of virus (e.g., double-stranded DNA, double-stranded RNA, single-strand DNA), viruses overall have high chances for mutations."
"The rapid rate of viral mutation combined with natural selection allows viruses to quickly adapt to changes in their host environment."
"The quasispecies model defines a viral quasispecies as a group of closely related viral strains competing within an environment."
"The rapidity of viral mutation also causes problems in the development of successful vaccines and antiviral drugs, as resistant mutations often appear within weeks or months after the beginning of a treatment."
"Because viruses typically produce many copies in an infected host, mutated genes can be passed on to many offspring quickly."
"Viral evolution is an important aspect of the epidemiology of viral diseases such as... hepatitis (e.g., HCV)."
"Viruses have short generation times, and many, in particular RNA viruses, have relatively high mutation rates..."
"Viral evolution is a subfield of evolutionary biology and virology that is specifically concerned with the evolution of viruses."
"Resistant mutations often appear within weeks or months after the beginning of a treatment."
"The rapid rate of viral mutation combined with natural selection allows viruses to quickly adapt to changes in their host environment."