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DESCRIPTION:Evolutionary conflict in viruses: the theoretical implications 
 and natural abundance of viral public goods cheats\n\nAsher Leeks\, Univer
 sity of British Columbia\n	Tuesday February 10\, 12-1pm\n	Zoom Link: https:/
 /mcgill.zoom.us/j/87078928687\n	In Person: 550 Sherbrooke\, Room 189\n	\n	Abs
 tract: Viral infections are social processes. To successfully replicate in
 side infected cells\, viruses must produce shared gene products\, that can
  be used by multiple viral genomes within the same cell\, and hence act as
  public goods. As a result\, viral cheats can emerge\, a type of molecular
  parasite formed by large deletions\, which spread by exploiting public go
 ods encoded by full-length viruses. Cheats exist across the viral universe
 \, arise frequently in laboratory infections\, and reflect the emergence o
 f evolutionary conflict at the molecular level.\n\nI will start by explori
 ng the evolutionary consequences of cheats for viral infections\, includin
 g their potential to drive viral populations extinct over short timescales
 \, or to drive the emergence of new forms of genome organisation over long
 er timescales. I will then present our recent work identifying and quantif
 ying cheats in natural viral infections\, leveraging thousands of newly av
 ailable avian influenza sequencing datasets. We have found that in more th
 an one in three animal infections\, viral cheats exceed 50% of the viral p
 opulation\, indicating that they are the majority variant within that popu
 lation. I will discuss the implications of this widespread cheat abundance
  in natural infections\, including potential clinical consequences and app
 lications within public health surveillance.\n
DTSTART:20260104T170000Z
DTEND:20260104T170000Z
SUMMARY:QLS Seminar Series - Asher Leeks
URL:https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/channels/event/qls-seminar-series-asher-
 leeks-370051
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