Tool Time: In My Best Tim Taylor I say “Huh?” to RabbitDawg

_{Barry Arrington

June 9, 2011

Intelligent Design}

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In response to my last post RabbitDawg writes:

Barry,
I was reading a column in Slate, and I tripped across the following:

“The behavior of this bacterium, once elucidated, proved to be truly chilling. Unlike previously known E. coli, O157 borrowed a gene from a completely different bacterium (Shigella flexneri) that produces the shiga toxin, which causes dysentery. This Yankee swap of genetic bits across species is what gives scientists nightmares. E. coli demonstrated evolution in action, right under our noses and at Warp 7 speed. Creationists take notice: This is the real deal.”

You’ll find the full article at http://www.slate.com/id/2296326/ Page 2, Paragraph 5.

know you’re not a “Creationist”, and this is not an example of new species creation, but rather, species gene swapping. But I’m sure that you can see where the Darwinianist’s can go with this. I’m not sharp shooting you here, heck, I’m on your side! I’m just fishing for a brief rebuttal, if you will.

MY RESPONSE:

Rabbit,

Yesterday my car was in the shop. The heater core had failed and coolant was leaking onto my floor boards. Many $$ later I am back on the road and to boot I have a useful analogy to help us address your question.

Suppose that instead of swapping out my heater core with another one just like it, the repair shop had replaced it with, say, a device that uses the car’s coolant system to pop popcorn while you drive. The heater core in my car is an enormously complex, obviously designed part. The popcorn popper is also an enormously complex, obviously designed part. Does the fact that the popcorn popper is now in my car instead of the heater core suggest anything whatsoever as to how either was assembled in the first place? I think the answer is obviously “no.”

Now to your case. The little beastie known as O157 had on enormously complex and specified gene at a certain location in its genome. Then it swapped that gene for another enormously complex and specified gene from Shigella flexneri. Does the fact that the Shigella flexneri gene is now in O157 instead of its original gene suggest anything whatsoever as to how either was assembled in the first place? I think the answer is obviously “no.”

I know the Darwinsts who suggest this gene swap is a slam dunk for evolution in action are not deeply stupid. Nevertheless, I am amazed that they would suggest that a particular event (this gene swap) explains increasing complexity when all the complexity that needs to be explained was there in the first place. Go figure.

Comments

As always, affirming the consequent.toc_{June 9, 2011
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"Unlike previously known E. coli, O157 borrowed a gene from a completely different bacterium ..." As I understand it, it has been known for years -- as in decades -- that bacteria can, and do, swap genes with other organisms of other species (I intentionally phrased it that way); and, for that matter, can incorporate "found" genes into their genomes. What? Didn't Darwinists get the memo?Ilion_{June 9, 2011
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Here's a little background info as to 'swapping genes';,,, there is actually found to be a fairly large pool of 'character' genes that are known to be shared amongst different species of bacteria for different particular environmental niches; Please note the 7:50 minute mark of following video; ORFan Genes Challenge Common Descent - Paul Nelson - video - short version http://www.vimeo.com/17135166 referenced paper: Estimating the size of the bacterial pan-genome - Pascal Lapierre and J. Peter Gogarten - 2008 Excerpt: We have found >139 000 rare (ORFan) gene families scattered throughout the bacterial genomes included in this study. The finding that the fitted exponential function approaches a plateau indicates an open pan-genome (i.e. the bacterial protein universe is of infinite size) (i.e. each new bacteria genome sequenced is expected to have a fairly large percentage of genes that are completely unique to that individual bacteria); a finding supported through extrapolation using a Kezdy-Swinbourne plot (Figure S3). This does not exclude the possibility that, with many more sampled genomes, the number of novel genes per additional genome might ultimately decline; however, our analyses and those presented in Ref. [11] do not provide any indication for such a decline and confirm earlier observations that many new protein families with few members remain to be discovered. http://www.paulyu.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Estimating-the-size-of-the-bacterial-pan-genome.pdf of particular note from preceding paper underneath figure 2 on page 3 of the article: Figure 2. The bacterial pan-genome. Each gene found in the bacterial genome represents one of three pools: genes found in all but a few bacterial genomes comprise the extended core of essential genes (250 gene families that encode proteins involved in translation, replication and energy homeostasis); the character genes (7900 gene families) represent genes essential for colonization and survival in particular environmental niches (e.g. symbiosis and photosynthesis) ; and finally, the accessory genes, a pool of apparently infinite size, contains genes that can be used to distinguish strains and serotypes; the function of most genes in this category is unknown. At the genomic level, a typical bacterial genome is composed of 8% of core genes, 64% of character genes and 28% of accessory genes. Although the character genes contain only 7900 gene families, they are the most abundant at the genomic level. Expanding the gene centered approach to 573 bacterial genomes or sampling of 508 genomes, excluding highly reduced genomes, yields similar results (Table S2), except that the total number of families in the accessory pool is increased as expected for an open pan-genome. further notes as to 'gene swapping' amongst bacteria species: bacterial species have acquired several mechanisms by which to exchange genetic materials. Transformation - the uptake of naked DNA is a common mode of horizontal gene transfer that can mediate the exchange of any part of a chromosome; this process is most common in bacteria that are naturally transformable; typically only short DNA fragments are exchanged. Conjugation - the transfer of DNA mediated by conjugal plasmids or conjugal transposons; requires cell to cell contact but can occur between distantly related bacteria or even bacteria and eukaryotic cells; can transfer long fragments of DNA. Transduction - the transfer of DNA by phage requires that the donor and recipient share cell surface receptors for phage binding and thus is usually limited to closely related bacteria; the length of DNA transferred is limited by the size of the phage head. ,,, It is also of interest to note that bacteria are now shown to communicate 'wirelessly', something that was completely unexpected from the neo-Darwinian framework; New study shows that bacteria can communicate through the air Excerpt: Professor Alan Parsons and Dr Richard Heal of QinetiQ ltd, have shown that physically separated colonies of bacteria can transmit signals conferring resistance to commonly used antibiotics. http://www.biology-online.org/kb/article.php?p=study-shows-bacteria-communicate-air Cellular Communication through Light Excerpt: As there were significant differences when separating the populations with glass or quartz, it is suggested that the cell populations use two (or more) frequencies for cellular information transfer, which influences at least energy uptake, cell division rate and growth correlation. Altogether the study strongly supports a cellular communication system, which is different from a molecule-receptor-based system and hints that photon-triggering is a fine tuning principle in cell chemistry. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005086 Paramecium caudatum can communicate with neighbors using a non-molecular method, probably photons. The cell populations were separated either with glass allowing photon transmission from 340 nm to longer waves, or quartz being transmittable from 150 nm, i.e. from UVlight to longer waves. Energy uptake, cell division rate and growth correlation were influenced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramecium_caudatum i.e. this, as well as many other evidences give the firm conclusion that bacteria are far more advanced in their inherent complexity than neo-Darwinian expectations would lead us to believe!!!bornagain77_{June 9, 2011
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