Forrester, N and Kautz, T (2018) RNA virus fidelity mutants: a useful tool for evolutionary biology or a complex challenge? Viruses. ISSN 1999-4915

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Abstract

RNA viruses replicate with low fidelity due to the error-prone nature of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, which generates approximately one mutation per round of genome replication. Due to the large population sizes produced by RNA viruses during replication, this results in a cloud of closely related virus variants during host infection, of which small increases or decreases in replication fidelity have been shown to result in virus attenuation in vivo, but not typically in vitro. Since the discovery of the first RNA virus fidelity mutants during the mid-aughts, the field has exploded with the identification of over 50 virus fidelity mutants distributed amongst 7 RNA virus families. This review summarizes the current RNA virus fidelity mutant literature, with a focus upon the definition of a fidelity mutant as well as methods to confirm any mutational changes associated with the fidelity mutant. Due to the complexity of such a definition, in addition to reports of unstable virus fidelity phenotypes, the future translational utility of these mutants and applications for basic science are examined.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via MDPI at http://doi.org/10.3390/v10110600 - please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
Uncontrolled Keywords: virus evolution, fidelity, vaccine, quasispecies
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history
Divisions: Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Life Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2018 09:38
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2018 09:38
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/5474

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