Scientific Journal Article
Here is a link to a scientific journal article relating to
HIV and Evolution.
Title: Evolution of Intrahost HIV-1 Genetic Diversity during
Chronic Infection
Abstract: “HIV-1 is one of the fastest evolving entities known. Given
that census population sizes of HIV-1 within individuals are much greater than
the inverse mutation rate, every possible single point mutation in the viral
genome occurs each generation. This enormous capability to generate genetic
variation allows for escape from immune surveillance and antiviral therapy.
However, compared to this potential, populations of HIV-1 within individuals
exhibit little genetic variation. This discrepancy between the known mutation
rate of HIV-1 and the average level of genetic variation in the env gene
observed in vivo is reflected in comparisons of the actual numbers of
productively infected cells, estimated as 107, and the effective population
size, estimated as 103. Using approximate Bayesian computation, we evaluated
several hypotheses based on a variety of selective and demographic processes to
explain the low effective population size of HIV-1. Of the models we examined,
the metapopulation model, in which HIV-1 evolves within an individual as a
large collection of small subpopulations subject to frequent migration, extinction,
and recolonization, was most consistent with the observed levels of genetic
variation and the average frequencies of those variants. The metapopulation
model links previous studies of viral dynamics and population genetics.”
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