Correlation between mutation rate and genome size in riboviruses: mutation rate of bacteriophage Qβ.

Abstract Genome sizes and mutation rates covary across all domains of life. In unicellular organisms and DNA viruses, they show an inverse relationship known as Drake’s rule. However, it is still unclear whether a similar relationship exists between genome sizes and mutation rates in RNA genomes. Coronaviruses, the RNA viruses with the largest genomes (∼30 kb), encode a proofreading 3′ exonuclease that allows them to increase replication fidelity. However, it is unknown whether, conversely, the RNA viruses with the smallest genomes tend to show particularly high mutation rates. To test this, we measured the mutation rate of bacteriophage Qβ, a 4.2-kb levivirus. Amber reversion-based Luria–D…