ERROR THRESHOLD IN FINITE POPULATIONS

A simple analytical framework to study the molecular quasispecies evol ution of finite populations is proposed, in which the population is as sumed to be a random combination of the constituent molecules in each generation; i.e., linkage disequilibrium at the population level is ne glected. In particular, for the single-sharp-peak replication landscap e we investigate the dependence of the error threshold on the populati on size and find that the replication accuracy at the threshold increa ses Linearly with the reciprocal of the population size for sufficient ly large populations. Furthermore, in the deterministic limit our form ulation yields the exact steady state of the quasispecies model, indic ating then that the population composition is a random combination of the molecules.