Therefore, there is a balance between the escape and evolving rates to lead to the maximum binding rate.
Once an escape mechanism evolves, it appears that there is strong selection on morphology for features that optimize escape ability [ 16].
We note that most reverse mutations were pre-existing while most escape mutations evolved de novo.
Traits that enhance the ability to escape would evolve with strong predation (e.g., [55] [58]).
Moreover, the above consideration reveals an evolutionary safeguard against harmful parasites: If parasites are sufficiently harmful (because mutation rates are small), escape catalysts evolve exploiting the very harmfulness of the parasite, which stabilizes the system as a whole.
The effects of RNAi/target mismatches that have implications for specificity and escape of rapidly evolving targets are considered.
However, a branched state can also evolve back to the unimodal state by genetic drift; thus, a stochastic analysis including both escaping from and evolving back to the unimodal distribution would give us an even deeper understanding of evolutionary branching.
Overall, the puzzle remains: Why do some pathogens escape frequently and evolve rapidly, whereas others rarely generate escape variants and remain controlled over many years by the same vaccine?
However, this cannot explain the observed relationship between gene age and evolutionary rate [ 16], since the fact that genes that escape Blast detection evolve fast does not mean that all fast genes escaped Blast detection.
The scientists can't explain why their viruses are mild, and if they escape they might evolve further, becoming both easily spread and quite deadly.
