Re: Darwin, Evolution, the Animal Kingdom, and Man

From: Wolf Kirchmeir (wwolfkir_at_sympatico.ca)
Date: 12/03/04 

Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 10:37:21 -0500

Lester Zick wrote:
[...]
>
> I find myself wondering if there are any biological evolutionary
> mechanisms other than random mutation mechanisms of natural selection?
>
> Regards - Lester

Don't wonder, read. You'd find out, eg, that the expression of genes
depends on the organisms' environment, which means that inactive "legacy
genes" may become active when the environment changes. Contrarywise, a
stable environment tends to prevent evolutionary change, since mutations
are more likely not to have a beneficial effect; but some mutations
survive because they have no effect, and may come into play when the
environment changes; and so on. Or that genetic drift is a powerful
weeder-out of genes, some of which might have enabled an organism to
survive environmental changes. Or the fact that most genes code for only
part of a protein, and that genes must be cut and pasted to make the the
sequence that produces a particular protein. That's important because
the cutters and pasters are RNA molecules, which are more likely to
respond to environmental inputs that DNA molecules; which in turn means
that environment can cause changes in the organism, albeit in a very
roundabout way. Or that bacteria appear to have a mechanism that
rnadomly rearranges DNA, which appears to be a major factor in the
development of antibiotic resistance. And so on. It's much more
complicated than random genetic mutation. {Any errors in the above are
my own.}

Bottom line: evolution is the effect of the interaction between genes
and environment. Neither can work withouit the other.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Darwin, Evolution, the Animal Kingdom, and Man
    ... > genes" may become active when the environment changes. ... > complicated than random genetic mutation. ...
    (sci.cognitive)
  • Re: Darwin, Evolution, the Animal Kingdom, and Man
    ... >> mechanisms other than random mutation mechanisms of natural selection? ... > genes" may become active when the environment changes. ... > complicated than random genetic mutation. ...
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  • Re: Why Evolution is a metaphysical hypothesis
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