----- Original Message -----
From: jwin...@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Punctuated equilibrium
On 28/08/2014 7:42 AM, Jojo Iznart wrote:
As pointed out, the odds for a mutation occuring that would result in a
feature that is useful enough is astronomical.
If the necessary information is present from the beginning, then it only
needs to be triggered and it will express itself. This is my suspicion of how
the process might work.
This process my friend, is called micro-evolution or variation or adaptation.
The genetic information required to trigger a change is already encoded in the
DNA. This mechanism can create large changes in a short time. It does not
rely on mutations. This mechanism does not result in a new kind (~species).
It does not result in Macro-evolution.
This idea of reversibility in itself is already a violation of one of the
tenets of Darwinian Theory. Darwinian Theory says the change must be
persistent. If the reverse is easier than the forward change, it violates the
"persistence" requirement.
Regarding E. Coli resistance. You are correct in that the resistance is
conferred by an expression of a gene. In this case, just a single gene which
creates a single protein on the cell wall of the bacteria that prevents the
antibiotic from attaching itself to the bacteria which prevents the
denaturing/splitting of the bacteria cell wall. But this is precisely my
argument for the difference between micro from macro-evolution. The mechanism
for expressing a trait is already encoded in the DNA in micro-evolution - it is
adaptation. There is no mutation that needs to confer a survival advantage.
Everything the bacteria needs to mount a defense is already encoded. That is
why you will never find E. Coli that is resistant to Chlorine for example.
Chlorine will always kill E. Coli, because E.Coli does not have a gene that it
can express to confer Chlorine resistance. The extent of what E. Coli can be
resistant to is determined by its genetic tool box. It can never be resistant
to something that is not in its tool box.
Since we don't understand what all the information in the non-coding regions
is there for, we can never be sure quite what might pop out of that tool box
once a key mutation has had time to occur.
You have a point, but since we have never seen E. Coli which can survive a
good bleaching, it is safe to assume it does not have the necessary genetic
encoding to mount that defense. Micro-evolution has a limited set of stresses
it can adapt for. That is why certain whole variations dissappear and go
extinct.
