A recent empirical study by Turner and Chao on the evolution of competitive interactions
among phage virus strains revealed that a strain grown at high rates of co‐infection evolved …

We previously examined competitive interactions among viruses by allowing the RNA phage
Φ6 to evolve at high and low multiplicities of infection (ratio of infecting viruses to bacterial …

In their search to understand the evolution of biological complexity, John Maynard Smith and
Eörs Szathmáry put forward the notion of major evolutionary transitions as those in which …

The evolution of competitive interactions among viruses was studied in the RNA phage φ6 at
high and low multiplicities of infection (that is, at high and low ratios of infecting phage to …

During replication, RNA viruses rapidly generate diverse mutant progeny which differ in their
ability to kill host cells. We report that the progeny of a single RNA viral genome diversified …

Highlights•Multiple, common dispersed packaging signals (PSs) promote RNA virus
assembly.•PS-mediated assembly solves a viral equivalent of Levinthal's Paradox.•RNA PSs …

RNA viruses offer a unique opportunity for the study of evolution at the molecular level.
Recent experiments involving clonal populations of RNA viruses have shown that …

The extent to which viruses and their hosts codiverge remains an open question, given that
numerous cases of both “cospeciation” and horizontal switching have recently been …

Several factors play a role during the replication and transmission of RNA viruses. First, as a
consequence of their enormous mutation rate, complex mixtures of genomes are generated …

Conflicting selection pressures occurring over the life cycle of an organism constitute serious
challenges to the robustness of replication. Viruses present a credible model system for …