Reply #63: Isn't that how evolution works in general...? [View All]

[Sufi Marmot]

There is selection for the best recombinant, but the evolution is elegant because they recycle previously successful polymorphisms.. If I understand this correctly, viruses that keep useful mutations/polymorphisms that are either obtained by random mutation or by recombination with another virus strain are more successful at either jumping to new host species, or becoming more virulent, or both. Anything that gives the virus a propgation advantage will be selected for; viruses whose recombination events that remove useful polymorphisms will be selected against and won't propagate as efficiently. The previously successful polymorphisms aren't recycled, their just maintained because they continue to confer a propagation advantageto the new virus in the context of its additional changes. Isn't this just a case of genetic recombination effecting population genetics? What am I missing here?

-SM