Quasispecies is a form of memory, "Molecular memory is structured as subgroups of variants having lower frequency of representation than teh most abundant or master sequences but that are presetn in a higher percentage than the ephemeral variants resulting from continuing erroneous replication."
Memory sequences may become master when the environment changes.
"A quasispecies evolves with a vision (the capacity of sensing and follwoing a fitness gradient, an apparent ability of selection to see ahead), and is supported by the effecdts of memory"
My take: The virus is a quasispecies, a dynamic everchanging cloud. That is the element on which selection takes place, and it is its amorphous character which allows it to thrive. This may also be why they live on the edge of mutational catastrophy, because this gives them the most freedom of motion around their sequence space.
J. Mol. Bio 2010, 397.
DOI> 10.1016/j.jmb.2010.02.005
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