Domingo E, Martínez-Salas E, Sobrino F, de la Torre J C, Portela A, Ortín J, López-Galindez C, Pérez-Breña P, Villanueva N, Nájera R
Gene. 1985;40(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(85)90017-4.
We review evidence that cloned (or uncloned) populations of most RNA viruses do not consist of a single genome species of defined sequence, but rather of heterogeneous mixtures of related genomes (quasispecies). Due to very high mutation rates, genomes of a quasispecies virus population share a consensus sequence but differ from each other and from the consensus sequence by one, several, or many mutations. Viral genome analyses by sequencing, fingerprinting, cDNA cloning etc. indicate that most viral RNA populations (quasispecies) contain all possible single and double genomic site mutations and varying proportions of triple, quadruple, etc. site mutations. This quasispecies structure of RNA virus populations has many important theoretical and practical implications because mutations at only one or a few sites may alter the phenotype of an RNA virus.
我们回顾了相关证据，即大多数RNA病毒的克隆（或未克隆）群体并非由具有确定序列的单一基因组种类组成，而是由相关基因组的异质混合物（准种）构成。由于极高的突变率，准种病毒群体的基因组共享一个共有序列，但彼此之间以及与共有序列之间存在一个、几个或许多突变的差异。通过测序、指纹图谱、cDNA克隆等方法进行的病毒基因组分析表明，大多数病毒RNA群体（准种）包含所有可能的单基因组位点突变和双基因组位点突变，以及不同比例的三基因组位点突变、四基因组位点突变等。RNA病毒群体的这种准种结构具有许多重要的理论和实际意义，因为仅一个或几个位点的突变就可能改变RNA病毒的表型。
