Hank49:
I'm not sure I agree with your statements on virus in cultured systems vs wild etc. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that you're saying mutation doesn't occur in the wild as it does in cultured systems. What about HIV? Are people in a cultured environment? or wild? And since there is little to no long term viral studies done on wild occuring species, theorizing that they don't mutate as fast in that case is mere speculation. The only viruses that are studied long enough to draw conclusions are mainly human born.
Yup, viral ecology definitely operates quite differently between wild vs. cultured environs!
Viral evolution operates much like bacterial evolution, or any kind of evolution, really. Speciation is favored by processes that promote mutation. The only process in a low diversity, high abundance environment (i.e. a mariculture setup) that really favors viral mutation is pure propagation. And that will only occur if a suitable viral strain finds conditions favorable for copying. But when/if that happens, look out!
Viral diversity is high typically where other ecological diversity is high. There are several *fairly new* studies out supporting this assertion; not that anyone was surprised by the results (just by the magnitude). But a high diversity viral environment suffers the same growth constraints as other high diversity critters, low abundance of individual types. This makes it very difficult for any specific "type" to go nuts and create mass destruction, unlike what happens on monoculture setups like domesticated crops and fish farms.
Human populations operate more along monoculture principles than "wild" type ones, so it's generally not appropriate to use human disease examples in reference to natural ecologies. Viruses are highly specific at the lower taxonomic level, unlike many bacterial disease vectors. It's what makes viruses so dangerous to individual species, but unthreatening to non-related groups.
One of the few "breaks" in viral research is that a "long-term" study could be completed in a year or so. Generation time is so rapid (given favorable conditions) with bacterial and viral-sized organisms, that we understand evolution in these sized critters perhaps better than anything else. Where the mystery is at the present time is primarily confined to micro-scale water-column processes within the plankton community. Individual strain types haven't been exhaustively quantified nor identified. What we do know is that viruses are a natural component, have high diversities, and that they generally don't impact much other than the nano- and picoplankton. But they THRASH these communities big-time; it's like a never-ending war of the lilliputians. Understanding this aspect of marine viruses is the only significant "new" stuff, and it's fascinating only really to biological oceanographers. I suppose my earlier remarks should have been more specific on this. The mini-wars between viruses and picoplankton appear predominantly confined with the smaller microplankton, and appear to be an ever-present process. That's cool.
