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Viral Fitness in Hosts

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of AIDS

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Definition

The fitness of an organism can be defined as its ability to survive and successfully replicate in a specific environment.

Introduction

Once the host has been effectively invaded, the virus needs to spread and replicate successfully, finding target cells and escaping host defenses at the same time. During this time, virus-host interactions take place, impacting viral fate. Each player has thus to obey certain constraints to survive and resist to selective pressures at the same time, implying some needs to adapt and evolve.

Viral fitness estimates the ability of a virus (or a virus genome sequence) to survive and reproduce in a specific environment (Fig. 1). Although conceptually simple, viral fitness results from a complex interplay between the virus and its host and implies that to adapt and survive, the virus has to evolve in a dynamic environment. Therefore, viral fitness is a relative value rather than an absolute measurement.

Fig. 1
figure 1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Angela Ciuffi

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  1. Angela Ciuffi
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Correspondence to Angela Ciuffi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Cell & Molecular Biology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Thomas J. Hope

  2. Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA

    Mario Stevenson

  3. University of California, San Diego Dept. Pathology, La Jolla, California, USA

    Douglas Richman

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Ciuffi, A. (2015). Viral Fitness in Hosts. In: Hope, T., Stevenson, M., Richman, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of AIDS. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9610-6_367-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9610-6_367-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9610-6

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