Fig. 4.
The fitness costs of incomplete genomes may be mitigated by spatially structured spread. The dynamics of multi-cycle replication in a 100 × 100 grid of cells were simulated, starting from a single cell in the center of the grid. a The initial growth rate (estimated by the log-transformed number of cells that are productively infected in the first 12 h) is shown across a range of diffusion coefficients for a virus with PP = 1.0 (solid line) and PP = 0.58 (dashed line). b–d The fitness cost of IVGs, as measured by the reduction in initial growth rate (b) or the increase in time taken to infect 100 cells (c) and produce 105 virions (d), is shown across a range of diffusion coefficients. The vertical dashed line represents the estimated value of D (5.825 µm2/s) for a spherical IAV particle in water. Each point shows the mean of ten simulations. Curves were generated by local regression. Shading represents 95% CI of local regression (mean ± 1.96 * SE). IVGs = incomplete viral genomes. Source data are provided as a Source Data file