[asa] Re: ASA origins

 It gets to the point that some would have us believe that God would make

the world reflect His beauty to the extent that would allow us to build enough

nuclear devices to destroy it, but not allow us to figure out how old it was.

-Mike (Friend of ASA)

-----Original Message-----

From: John Walley <john_walley@yahoo.com>

To: 'Janice Matchett' <janmatch@earthlink.net>; 'Dehler, Bernie' <bernie.dehler@intel.com>; asa@calvin.edu

Sent: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 3:02 pm

Subject: RE: [asa] ORIGINS: pseudogenes are overwhelming evidence for evolution...?

I saw that article when it was first
published as well but that is hardly the mechanism by which humans and chimps
share pseudogenes. These genes were known to be formerly functional genes in a near
relative, not bacteria.

Could God have specially created man with
broken pseudogenes and copying errors if He wanted to? Sure, just like He could
have created a young earth and just made it look old. But why?

Even Ken Ham rejects the appearance of age
argument because he says that makes God look deceptive and he’s right on
that one.

I think we just need to take our own
advice and follow the evidence wherever it leads and be prepared to accept the
most likely interpretation of the data without letting sentimental notions or theological
hang-ups get in the way.

John

-----Original Message-----

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]
On Behalf Of Janice Matchett

Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007
2:32 PM

To: Dehler, Bernie; asa@calvin.edu

Subject: Re: [asa] ORIGINS:
pseudogenes are overwhelming evidence for evolution...?

At 01:02 AM 11/4/2007, Dehler, Bernie wrote:

"...Both the pseudogene and chromosome evidence for evolution were cited
as evidence by Dr. Francis Collins in his recent book. .." ~ Bernie Dehler

 @ You may my post of 9/13/2007 here to be of interest:

http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200709/0318.html

Share Alike:
Genes from bacteria found in animals  - Patrick Barry

Some insects and
roundworms pick up DNA from bacteria living within their cells, new research
shows.

The DNA transfer occurs in the animals' egg cells, so the genetic modification
passes between generations. The mechanism therefore provides an alternative to
mutation of existing DNA as a way for the species to acquire new genetic
traits.

Gene swapping is ubiquitous among bacteria and other single-celled organisms.
Even plants and fungi are known to occasionally adopt a piece of foreign DNA. But
scientists thought

that multicellular animals picked up genes from bacteria only rarely.

"Our data are indicating that [DNA transfer] is going on all the time," says John H. Werren of the
University of Rochester in New York, who led the research team.

The discovery challenges the prevailing view
of animal evolution, in which genetic information is passed exclusively from
parents to offspring. The transfer of DNA from bacteria means that
an individual could acquire and pass on genes that it had not inherited.

"We're sort of on the edge of a transformation in the field" of
animal evolution, comments Laura A. Katz of Smith College in Northampton, Mass.
"These sorts of data allow us to redefine

the field to capture this other process going on."

Werren's team looked at several species of insects and roundworms infected by a
parasitic bacterium called Wolbachia
pipientis, which afflicts about 20 percent of insect species as well
as many other invertebrates. The bacterium lives inside the animals' cells,
including their egg cells, giving it ready access to the chromosomes that are
passed on to the animals'

offspring.

"I think that physical access is the key to allowing this [DNA transfer]
to happen," Werren says. The way in which animals' bodies insulate their
eggs and sperm from foreign bacteria is

the main barrier to heritable-DNA transfer in animals, he says.

The researchers compared the genetic code of the bacterium with the code of 11
other species: four roundworms, four fruit flies, and three wasps. The team
found that all but three of the

fruit fly species had segments of the bacterium's genetic code embedded in
their DNA. The report
appears online and in an upcoming Science.

Some of this transferred DNA is active in the host species' cells, the
researchers found, but they didn't determine whether the genes serve a
biological function in the host.

The team also scanned an archive of published genomes for 21 other invertebrate
species and found bacterial genes in nine of them.

Such bacterial genetic code is routinely ignored during the sequencing of
animals' genomes because most scientists have assumed
that the foreign DNA is a sign of contamination,

Werren says. However, the new research rules out the possibility of
contamination, Katz says. "I think it's a really beautifully done,
elegant study."

Julie C. Dunning Hotopp, a member of the research team and a scientist at the
J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., says that the mechanism by
which DNA leaves the bacteria and becomes inserted into the host species'
chromosomes remains uncertain.

While in-cell parasites such as W.
pipientis are common among invertebrates, none is known to infect
people or other mammals, Werren says.

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Received on Mon Nov 5 09:57:59 2007