J. Theodore Cox and Rinaldo B. Schinazi
Abstract: Quasispecies theory predicts that there is a critical mutation probability above which a viral population will go extinct. Above this threshold the virus loses the ability to replicate the best-adapted genotype, leading to a population composed of low replicating mutants that is eventually doomed. We propose a new branching model that shows that this is not necessarily so. That is, a population composed of ever changing mutants may survive.
Journal: J. Appl. Probab. Volume 49, Number 3 (2012), 888-894.
DOI: 10.1239/jap/1346955342