Brachiators On Our family Tree? (Common ancestry - direct evidence?)

From: Peter Ruest (pruest@pop.mysunrise.ch)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 11:05:52 EST

  • Next message: Peter Ruest: "Common ancestry - direct evidence?"

    Dick Fischer wrote:
    >
    > Peter Ruest wrote:
    >
    > > Is there any _direct_ evidence for common ancestry between humans
    > > and apes?
    >
    > I've mentioned this on the list before:
    >
    > Evidence of genetic linkage between man and other higher primates can
    > be derived from an endogenous retroviral sequence imbedded in our DNA
    > that is also found at the same point in the DNA of chimpanzees.
    > Retroviruses are a particular class of virus, which includes the HIV
    > virus that causes AIDS, for example. These viral agents have the
    > ability to annex themselves directly into a DNA sequence, and an
    > ancient virus apparently did.
    >
    > The entire genetic code was then passed to future generations,
    > including the retroviral sequence. This retroviral sequence has no
    > activator mechanism, and thus is harmless, but here is the point. Not
    > only do man and chimpanzee have the same number of muscles, bones and
    > teeth, our DNA has a correlation of nearly 99%. But in addition, an
    > identical alien viral sequence can be found at the same locus point on
    > both human and chimp DNA.
    >
    > A rational explanation is that the viral sequence became attached to
    > the DNA of a common ancestor. It has remained in the DNA, and has
    > been copied in both man and chimp for millions of years. This
    > additional confirming data for relatedness to an animal that already
    > looks to be a close relative anyway, makes a strong case for a
    > brachiating forbear on our family tree.

    Thank you, Dick. This is an example of the type of evidence I was asking
    for. Can you give me the reference of the original paper(s) where this
    was published?

    Is it known whether the two sequences of this retroviral insert have
    diverged by the amount expected for neutral evolution for the 6+6 Myr
    (or somewhat more)? Have they picked up any stop codons producing
    pseudogenes?

    Do you happen to know of other cases?

    Peter 

    -- 
Dr. Peter Ruest, CH-3148 Lanzenhaeusern, Switzerland
<pruest@dplanet.ch> - Biochemistry - Creation and evolution
"..the work which God created to evolve it" (Genesis 2:3)

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