ArticleTrends in ecology & evolution2008
Pacing a small cage: mutation and RNA viruses.
Article in Trends in ecology & evolution, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed.
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- RNA Large Language Models in Virology.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Strong evidence for the evolution of decreasing compositional heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 genomes during the pandemic.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Genome sizes of animal RNA viruses reflect phylogenetic constraints.Virus evolution · 2025Article
- Examining the molecular clock hypothesis for the contemporary evolution of the rabies virus.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Innovation in viruses: fitness valley crossing, neutral landscapes, or just duplications?Virus evolution · 2024Article
- Evolutionary stability of antigenically escaping viruses.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- AAV-CRISPR-Cas13 eliminates human enterovirus and prevents death of infected mice.EBioMedicine · 2023Article
- Conventional and advanced detection techniques of foodborne pathogens: A comprehensive review.Heliyon · 2023Article
- HexSE: Simulating evolution in overlapping reading frames.Virus evolution · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Variants Identification: Overview of Molecular Existing Methods.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Gene Overlapping as a Modulator ofMicroorganisms · 2022Article
- The United States Swine Pathogen Database: integrating veterinary diagnostic laboratory sequence data to monitor emerging pathogens of swine.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2021Article
- Accessory Gene Products of Influenza A Virus.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2021Review
- SARS-CoV-2 virulence evolution: Avirulence theory, immunity and trade-offs.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2021Review
- Grass Carp Reovirus VP56 Allies VP4, Recruits, Blocks, and Degrades RIG-I to More Effectively Attenuate IFN Responses and Facilitate Viral Evasion.Microbiology spectrum · 2021Article
- Targeting the protease of West Nile virus.RSC medicinal chemistry · 2021Review
- Rhinovirus and asthma: Challenges and opportunities.Reviews in medical virology · 2021Review
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
RNA viruses have an extremely high mutation rate, and we argue that the most plausible explanation for this is a trade-off with replication speed. We suggest that research into further increasing this mutation rate artificially as an antiviral treatment requires a theoretical reevaluation, especially relating to the so-called error threshold. The main evolutionary consequence of a high mutation rate appears to have been to restrict RNA viruses to a small genome; they thus rapidly exploit a limited array of possibilities. Investigating this constraint to their evolution, and how it is occasionally overcome, promises to be fruitful. We explain the many terms used in investigating RNA viral evolution and highlight the specific experimental and comparative work that needs to be done.
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Registered trials
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