Error catastrophe
Error catastrophe is the extinction of an organism, many times in the context of microorganisms, such as viruses, as a result of excessive mutations. The theory was proposed by Leslie Orgel in 1963. Leslie Orgel published his first paper on the subject in 1963[1] and developed it in 1970[2]. The term “error catastrophe” was originally introduced in the theory of molecular evolution by Manfred Eigen[3]. This term was coined in order to describe the supposed inability of a genetic element to be kept in a population if the fidelity replication machinery decreases beyond a certain threshold value[4]. Error catastrophe has been invoked as a theoretical basis for the treatment of viral infections with drugs that would push the error rate for copying of the viral genome beyond this threshold[4][5].
References
- ↑ Orgel, L. E. (February 15, 1963). "The maintenance of the accuracy of protein synthesis and its relevance to aging". Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 49 (4): 517–521. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC299893/pdf/pnas00171-0095.pdf.
- ↑ Orgel, L. E. (September 21, 1970). "The maintenance of the accuracy of protein synthesis and its relevance to ageing: a correction". Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 67 (3): 1476. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC283377/pdf/pnas00101-0395.pdf.
- ↑ Eigen, Manfred (1971). "Selforganization of matter and evolution of biological macromolecules". Naturwissenschaften (Springer Verlag) 58 (10): 465.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Summers, Jesse; Litwin, Samuel (Jan 2006). "Examining The Theory of Error Catastrophe". J Virol. 80 (1): 20–26. http://jvi.asm.org/content/80/1/20.full.
- ↑ Eigen, Manfred (2002). "Error catastrophe and antiviral strategy". Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 99: 13374-13376. ISSN 0028-1042. http://www.pnas.org/content/99/21/13374.full.pdf.
