Evolution of RNA viruses occurs through disequilibria of collections of closely related mutant
spectra or mutant clouds termed viral quasispecies. Here we review the origin of the …

Fitness landscapes have proven to be a valuable concept in evolutionary biology,
combinatorial optimization, and the physics of disordered systems. A fitness landscape is a …

Background A number of recent papers have cast doubt on the applicability of the
quasispecies concept to virus evolution, and have argued that population genetics is a more …

This review is an introduction to theoretical models and mathematical calculations for
biological evolution, aimed at physicists. The methods in the field are naturally very similar to …

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been recognized as a significant epidemic disease
threatening the cattle industry since the sixteenth century, and in the late nineteenth century …

Lethal mutagenesis, or virus extinction produced by enhanced mutation rates, is under
investigation as an antiviral strategy that aims at counteracting the adaptive capacity of viral …

Minimal protocell concepts have high intellectual and practical value. Following chemoton
theory, developed by Tibor Gánti in 1971, we suggest that a minimal protocell satisfying all …

We describe the application of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to two
fundamental problems in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary biologists frequently wish to …

Non-covalent compositional assemblies, made of monomeric mutually catalytic molecules,
constitute an alternative to alphabet-based informational biopolymers as a mechanism of …

We study self-replicating molecules under externally varying conditions. Changing
conditions such as temperature variations and/or alterations in the environment's resource …