Imprecise recombinant viruses evolve via a fitness-driven, iterative process of polymerase template-switching events

• Kirsten Bentley ,

  Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  * E-mail: bentleyk@cardiff.ac.uk (KB); d.j.evans@st-andrews.ac.uk (DJE)

  Current address: School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

  Affiliation BSRC and School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6619-2098

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• Fadi Ghassan Alnaji ,

  Contributed equally to this work with: Fadi Ghassan Alnaji, Luke Woodford

  Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, United States of America

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2893-9832

  ⨯
• Luke Woodford ,

  Contributed equally to this work with: Fadi Ghassan Alnaji, Luke Woodford

  Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation BSRC and School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2530-2120

  ⨯
• Siân Jones,

  Roles Investigation

  Affiliation BSRC and School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom

  ⨯
• Andrew Woodman,

  Roles Investigation

  Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, United States of America

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7757-5492

  ⨯
• David J. Evans

  Roles Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  * E-mail: bentleyk@cardiff.ac.uk (KB); d.j.evans@st-andrews.ac.uk (DJE)

  Affiliation BSRC and School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1315-4258

  ⨯