But natural selection favours those mutations that increase the survival
of the virus
Greg
> At 03:58 26/03/2020, Thomas Cox wrote:
>>I think the issue here is that the probability of a functional
>>mutation, or change ,in the RNA, increases as the number or
>>organisms infected increases. Since this may wind up infecting
>>hundreds of millions of people, it would appear that there are
>>plenty of opportunities for "mutation", however one might want to
>>define that term.
>
> Yes, I think that you have got to be right. Since the primary
> opportunity for mutation occurs during replication, and since that
> replication can only happen within a living host cell (be it human,
> animal, plant or bacterium), then I think it must follow that the
> more hosts are infected, the more mutations will happen.
>
> For those of a "half full", rather than "half empty" personality, I
> suppose it's worth mentioning that, being an essentially random and
> indiscriminate process, viral mutation can result in a reduction (or,
> I suppose, theoretically also possible elymination!), rather than an
> increase, in pathogenicity.
>
> Kind Regards,
>
>
> John
>
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