Article
Co-infection weakens selection against epistatic mutations in RNA viruses.
Genetics - 1 Sept 2004
Froissart Rémy, Wilke Claus O, Montville Rebecca, Remold Susanna K, Chao Lin, Turner Paul E
Abstract excerpt
Co-infection may be beneficial in large populations of viruses because it permits sexual exchange between viruses that is useful in combating the mutational load. This advantage of sex should be especially substantial when mutations interact through negative epistasis. In contrast, co-infection may be detrimental because it allows virus complementation, where inferior genotypes profit from superior virus products...
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