Characteristic time in quasispecies evolution

► The characteristic time, Tc, evaluates the average evolution time of deterministic systems. ► The Tc depends on the mutation rate and on the fitness landscape. ► For certain fitness-landscapes, when evolving to a highest peak Tc shows a minimum at a given mutation rate. ► The minimum Tc is the consequence of a trade-off between exploration and fixation. ► In some fitness landscapes Tc shows a maximum at a mutation rate related to the error threshold.