Semiconservative replication, genetic repair, and many-gened genomes: Extending the quasispecies paradigm to living systems

Quasispecies theory has emerged as an important tool for modeling the evolutionary dynamics of biological systems. We review recent advances in the field, with an emphasis on the quasispecies dynamics of semiconservatively replicating genomes. Applications to cancer and adult stem cell growth are discussed. Additional topics, such as genetic repair and many-gene genomes, are covered as well.