Martin Nowak is at the Dept of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
Trends Ecol Evol. 1992 Apr;7(4):118-21. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(92)90145-2.
A quasispecies is a well-defined distribution of mutants that is generated by a mutation-selection process. Selection does not act on a single mutant but on the quasispecies as a whole. Experimental systems have been designed to study quasispecies evolution under laboratory conditions. More recently, virus populations have been called quasispecies to indicate their extensive genetic heterogeneity. The most prominent examples are probably the human immunodeficiency viruses HIV-1 and HIV-2. The quasispecies nature of HIV has formed the basis of a model that provides a mechanism for the pathogenesis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. This article focuses on the nature of the quasispecies concept and its implications for evolutionary biology and virology.
准种是由突变-选择过程产生的一种明确的突变体分布。选择不是针对单个突变体，而是针对整个准种。已经设计了实验系统来在实验室条件下研究准种进化。最近，病毒群体也被称为准种，以表明它们具有广泛的遗传异质性。最突出的例子可能是人类免疫缺陷病毒 HIV-1 和 HIV-2。HIV 的准种性质构成了一个模型的基础，该模型为人类获得性免疫缺陷综合征（AIDS）的发病机制提供了一种机制。本文重点介绍准种概念的性质及其对进化生物学和病毒学的意义。
