A speed–fidelity trade-off determines the mutation rate and virulence of an RNA virus
Table 1
Kinetic parameters for nucleotide incorporation and misincorporation for purified RdRp.
The kpol for the correct nucleotide measures the speed of polymerization in vitro. The kpol,corr/kpol,incorr is an in vitro surrogate for fidelity, as it measures the relative rates of incorporation for the correct and incorrect nucleotides. A higher ratio indicates higher fidelity.