Table 1.

Estimated rate of generation of HCV variants with nucleotide substitutions^*

Mutation rate	Number of nucleotide changes	Probability	Number of virions generated per day	Number of all possible mutants	Fraction of all possible mutants created per day
μ=10−5	0	0.91	9.1×1011
	1	0.087	8.7×1010	2.9×104	1
	2	0.0042	4.2×109	4.1×108	1
	3	0.00013	1.3×108	4.0×1012	3.4×10−5
μ=10−4	0	0.38	3.8×1011
	1	0.37	3.7×1011	2.9×104	1
	2	0.18	1.8×1011	4.1×108	1
	3	0.056	5.6×1010	4.0×1012	0.014

^*Daily rate of production of HCV is assumed to be 10¹² per day