id author title date pages extension mime words sentences flesch summary cache txt cord-270670-cubh9jxc Domingo, E. Viruses as Quasispecies: Biological Implications 2006 .txt text/plain 10489 453 39 a Upon infection with an RNA virus (even with a single particle, as depicted here, enlarged about 10 6 times), viral replication leads to a mutant spectrum of related genomes, termed viral quasispecies. As further discussed in the text, in real infections multiple mutant spectra that can amount to a large number of replicating (or potentially replicating) genomes (up to 10 9 or even 10 12 per infected individual) provide highly dynamic mutant repertoire viral yields in cell culture, have been immensely powerful in characterizing the population dynamics of RNA viruses (see references in the reviews by Domingo and Holland 1997; Quiñones-Mateu and Arts 2002; Novella 2003; and the chapters by Quiñones-Mateu and Arts and Escarmís et al., this volume) . Despite these limitations, determination of nucleotide sequence heterogeneities in virus populations using correct reagents and adequate controls has consistently documented that most RNA viruses (and also some DNA viruses) consist of complex mutant spectra, with an average number of 1-100 mutations per genome (Sect. ./cache/cord-270670-cubh9jxc.txt ./txt/cord-270670-cubh9jxc.txt