Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9048, USA.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2012 Aug;15(4):525-30. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2012.05.007. Epub 2012 Jun 2.
Viral factors and host barriers influence virally induced disease, and asymptomatic versus symptomatic infection is governed by a 'virulence threshold'. Understanding modulation of virulence thresholds could lend insight into disease outcome and aid in rational therapeutic and vaccine design. RNA viruses are an excellent system to study virulence thresholds in the context of quasispecies population dynamics. RNA viruses have high error frequencies and our understanding of viral population dynamics has been shaped by quasispecies evolutionary theory. In turn, research using RNA viruses as replicons with short generation times and high mutation rates has been an invaluable tool to test models of quasispecies theory. The challenge and new frontier of RNA virus population dynamics research is to combine multiple theoretical models and experimental data to describe viral population behavior as it changes, moving within and between hosts, to predict disease and pathogen emergence. Several excellent studies have begun to undertake this challenge using novel approaches.
病毒因素和宿主屏障影响病毒引起的疾病，无症状感染和有症状感染受“毒力阈值”控制。了解毒力阈值的调节可以深入了解疾病的结果，并有助于合理的治疗和疫苗设计。RNA 病毒是研究准种群体动态中毒力阈值的绝佳系统。RNA 病毒的错误频率很高，我们对病毒群体动态的理解受到了准种进化理论的影响。反过来，使用 RNA 病毒作为具有短世代时间和高突变率的复制子的研究一直是测试准种理论模型的宝贵工具。RNA 病毒群体动态研究的挑战和新前沿是结合多个理论模型和实验数据来描述病毒群体行为的变化，包括在宿主内和宿主间的移动，以预测疾病和病原体的出现。一些优秀的研究已经开始使用新方法来应对这一挑战。
