Brumer, YisroelShakhnovich, Eugene I.2019-10-112005Brumer, Yisroel, and Eugene I. Shakhnovich. 2005. “Selective Advantage for Conservative Viruses.” Physical Review E71 (3): 031903. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.71.031903.1539-37551550-2376http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41534504In this article we study the full semiconservative treatment of a model for the coevolution of a virus and an adaptive immune system. Regions of viability are calculated for both conservatively and semiconservatively replicating viruses interacting with a realistic semiconservatively replicating immune system. The conservative virus is found to have a selective advantage in the form of an ability to survive in regions with a wider range of mutation rates than its semiconservative counterpart, as well as an increased replication rate where both species can survive. This may help explain the existence of a rich range of viruses with conservatively replicating genomes, a trait that is found nowhere else in nature.en-USJournal Article2019-10-1110.1103/PhysRevE.71.031903