Estimates of the mutation rate per nucleotide and strand copying were obtained under lytic growth conditions, where replication is thought to be mainly binary, yielding m_s/n/r = 7.9 ´ 10^-8 and m_i/n/r = 2.0 ´ 10^-8 (2) (see estimate per strand copying for this phage, below). Using B = 115 (1), there should be r_c = log 115 / log 2 = 6.8 cycles of copying per cell infection. Neutrality was satisfied (a = 1), thus, m_s/n/c = 6.8 ´ 7.9 ´ 10^-8 = 5.4 ´ 10^-7, m_i/n/c = 6.8 ´ 2.0 ´ 10^-8 = 1.4 ´ 10^-7, and d = 0.20.

1. De Paepe, M. and F. Taddei. 2006. Viruses' life history: towards a mechanistic basis of a trade-off between survival and reproduction among phages. PLoS Biol. 4:e193.

2. Drake, J. W. 1991. A constant rate of spontaneous mutation in DNA-based microbes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:7160-7164.