The Great YETi Search

Glenn Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Mon, 13 Oct 1997 20:35:38 -0500

At 06:24 PM 10/13/97 -0600, moros@castor.wustl.edu wrote:
>
>No, my point is that you can not conclude that the removal of the gene proves
>it had no functions. My tonsils were removed when I was 16 and apparently
>they served no function since I'm still alive and well. But they do serve a
>function, a fuction I don't have anymore, a function I can live without, I
>function that escapes most observations, but a function nevertheless.
>
At 07:24 PM 10/13/97 -0700, Arthur V. Chadwick wrote:
>At 05:43 PM 10/13/97 -0500, Glenn wrote:
>
>>It is not simply one chimp from which this epsilon pseudogene has been
>>partially removed. It is all chimps. Are you suggesting that maybe all
>>chimps are living in pain? Remember that the pseudogene doesn't work in any
>>of the animals listed above.
>
>This fact is far from being established. Even a deletion does not assure
>that something doesn't perform a function. After all, having blue eyes is
>certainly different than brown, but by no means a fatal flaw, and at the
>molecular level hardly a discernable difference. To infer that something
>has no function is very difficult indeed, especially in higher organisms.
>
>The coding lacks the introns and lacks the
>>control section. Because of this, it can't manufacture a protein in any of
>>the animals. The removal of a small section of this pseudogene in the chimp
>>merely confirms that it had no function.
>
>No, it merely confirms that we have not yet discovered a function for it
>yet.

Hi Art and Eduardo,

I wish it hadn't been you all to reply in the way you did. This last week,
I have spent much time with a young earth creationist who continually used
the "wait until tomorrow" approach to solving all of his problems. According
to him,"Tomorrow" will be a glorious time when all of our questions will be
answered. I finally found the title for this tendency. It is the Great YETi
search. The "We haven't found the solution YET" answer. While this may be
true, it is useless as an explanation because the evolutionist can use it
when you stump him. It is a all round way for anyone to avoid having to
deal with the knowledge we have today. To me this is an unfair tactic for
both the evolutionist and the creationist.

One thing that immediately comes to mind is regulation. This is
>especially apparent in the beta globin genes, where a pseudogene precedes
>the three successively synthesized genes produced in the embryo, and
>another pseudogene precedes the two genes produced in the adult. Very
>little attention has been paid to the fact that the genes are in precisely
>the order of function in the development of the infant. The probability of
>that arrangement by chance is miniscule, and there is no apparent reason
>why it might be important to the survival of the infant, unless it is
>because the arrangement makes it possible for the precise timing of the
>production of the various forms. If that is the case, the "pseudogenes"
>are appropriately placed to perform a function in regulation, although I
>have no clue as to what that function might be yet. You should be aware
>too that old "pseudogenes" are popping off the list about as fast as new
>"pseudogenes" are popping on the list, as functions are discovered for them.

Are these processed pseudogenes like the epsilon immunoglobin? I want to
clarify that what I am talking about is NOT junk DNA. There are regions of
junk DNA which are monotonous sequences of repeats. These have been shown
to have a function in many cases. What I am talking about are the
processed pseudogenes--control section cut out, tail added introns gone. In
your above case where you say the pseudogene resides just before the 3
successively synthesized genes, the 3 genes are in the order of function in
development. I presume that the pseudogene is not synthesized. In this case
you have not really answered the problem because as I understand your
description it looks like this:

pseduogene-gene 1-gene 2-gene3

which relates to

unused-used-used-used.

What is it missing on the pseudogene in comparison with its neighbors? If it
is not synthesized, then how do you know it has a function?

By the way, do you have a reference?

glenn

Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm