Quasispecies can exist under neutral drift at finite population sizes

Abstract

We investigate the evolutionary dynamics of a finite population of RNA sequences adapting to a neutral fitness landscape. Despite the lack of differential fitness between viable sequences, we observe typical properties of adaptive evolution, such as increase of mean fitness over time and punctuated equilibrium transitions. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding evolution at high mutation rates, and extend the relevance of the quasispecies concept to finite populations and time scales. Our results imply that the quasispecies concept and neutral drift are not complementary concepts, and that the relative importance of each is determined by a combination of population size and mutation rate.