  We argue that the phenomenon of symmetry breaking in genetics can enhance the
adaptability of a species to changes in the environment. In the case of a
virus, the claim is that the codon bias in the neutralization epitope improves
the virus' ability to generate mutants that evade the induced immune response.
We support our claim with a simple ``toy model'' of a viral epitope evolving in
competition with the immune system. The effective selective advantage of a
higher mutability leads to a dominance of codons that favour non-synonymous
mutations. The results in this paper suggest the possibility of emergence of an
algorithmic language in more complicated systems.
