Animal RNA viruses are highly mutable and adaptable to restrictive and hostile environments imposed by hosts and the outside world. This prominent but common feature of RNA viruses is the foundation for their survival within some specific or broad host populations. Viruses have their own survival strategies ...
Animal RNA viruses are highly mutable and adaptable to restrictive and hostile environments imposed by hosts and the outside world. This prominent but common feature of RNA viruses is the foundation for their survival within some specific or broad host populations. Viruses have their own survival strategies in host cells and individuals. In order to fully understand the “ultimate choice” of the viruses, a wide variety of multidisciplinary research approaches are required. In 2017, we have collected numerous research articles on a variety of viruses in this direction and published them as a Research Topic “Highly mutable animal RNA viruses: adaptation and evolution” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/4440/highly-mutable-animal-rna-viruses-adaptation-and-evolution). Since then, we have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is well-recognized again how critical for us to comprehend the mutable and adaptable nature of RNA viruses, from a practical point of view as well as a basic scientific viewpoint. Here, we would like to present our new Research Topic as a continuation of the previous version with great success.
In this Research Topic, we welcome research papers of any article types listed in “For authors” (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virology/for-authors/article-types) that focus on the following themes but are not limited to:
- Biology and molecular biology of human/animal RNA viruses
- Mutation, recombination, adaptation, and evolution of pathogenic human/animal RNA viruses
- Detailed variant analysis of pathogenic human/animal RNA viruses
- Viral adaptation by synonymous and non-synonymous mutations in the genome.
- New technologies to sharply study the biology and molecular biology of viral mutation, recombination, adaptation, and evolution.
- Anti-human RNA virus strategies, antivirals and vaccines.
- Evidence-based proactive prediction of the adaptive mutations and the variants
Keywords:
Animal viruses, RNA, RNA viruses, adaptive mutation, Evolution, mutations
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.