Quasispecies and recombination

Theor Popul Biol. 2006 Dec;70(4):479-85. doi: 10.1016/j.tpb.2006.08.002. Epub 2006 Aug 12.

Abstract

Recombination is introduced into Eigen's theory of quasispecies evolution. Comparing numerical simulations of the rate equations in the non-recombining and recombining cases show that recombination has a strong effect on the error threshold and, for a wide range of mutation rates, gives rise to two stable fixed points in the dynamics. This bi-stability results in the existence of two error thresholds. However, we prove that, for low mutation rates the bi-stability breaks down and the unique equilibrium distribution is concentrated around the sequence with highest fitness.

MeSH terms

  • Crossing Over, Genetic
  • Recombination, Genetic*