New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed everything(washingtonpost.com)
washingtonpost.com
New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed everything
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/11/startling-new-discovery-600-million-years-ago-a-single-biological-mistake-changed-everything/
123 comments
I'm a math biology (in other words, I use math to model biology problems) student, and not an evolution nay-sayer, and...the scientific work isn't at all about showing how the amazingly (I'm a student, I learn to respect my opponent) complex phenomena underlying the emergence of organs can be neatly associated with single events.
In particular, this article was of interest to me simply because of how grand a claim it makes.
In general, grand claims are something to approach with skepticism, because of laws of probability number 35, which states that: "few complex non-linear phenomena have a beautifully simple explanation, and if a grand claim purports to be such an explanation, then it most likely is not such an explanation".
It is worth reading law 36 of probability as well: "the maker of a grand claim is more likely to be a 'journalist' or a PR department person, than a scientist".
How do the laws of probability hold up? Pretty darn well, I'd say.
Here's the abstract (by the way, eLife IS an open source journal, so the journalist had no excuse here):
> To form and maintain organized tissues, multicellular organisms orient their mitotic spindles relative to neighboring cells. A molecular complex scaffolded by the GK protein-interaction domain (GKPID) mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues. Here we illuminate how this complex evolved and commandeered control of spindle orientation from a more ancient mechanism. The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which – the evolution of GKPID’s capacity to bind the cortical marker protein – can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GKPID. This change revealed and repurposed an ancient molecular surface that previously had a radically different function. We show how the physical simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution of a new protein function now essential to the biological complexity of many animals.
Key takeaways:
1) "A molecular complex scaffolded by the GK protein-interaction domain (GKPID) mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues"
Explanation: in this sentence, the scientists are carefully pointing out where the 'thing' (a protein domain) they are going to make a claim about fits into the biological picture. No, there isn't one superhero -- there's a carefully choreographed concert that their 'thing' is a part of.
2) "we illuminate how this complex evolved and commandeered control of spindle orientation from a more ancient mechanism"
Very cool. Simple statement. Interesting, but no grand claim.
3) "The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which – the evolution of GKPID’s capacity to bind the cortical marker protein – can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GKPID."
Again, they reiterate how there was actually a bunch of things happening ("a series of molecular exploitation events"), ONE of which is the cool one they want to talk about.
4) "This change revealed and repurposed an ancient molecular surface that previously had a radically different function."
If you were wondering what's cool, this is what's cool.
5) In conclusion: "We show how the physical simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution of a new protein function now essential to the biological complexity of many animals."
Hmm...no grand claim finishing claim made regarding how this ONE thing changed EVERYTHING. Again, we are reminded of the whole picture: "so yeah guys, here's how this protein function, which is essential (because it's part of a super complex dance number) for so many living things, probably came about".
I'm going to go commission a gold filigree copy of the laws of probability.
In particular, this article was of interest to me simply because of how grand a claim it makes.
In general, grand claims are something to approach with skepticism, because of laws of probability number 35, which states that: "few complex non-linear phenomena have a beautifully simple explanation, and if a grand claim purports to be such an explanation, then it most likely is not such an explanation".
It is worth reading law 36 of probability as well: "the maker of a grand claim is more likely to be a 'journalist' or a PR department person, than a scientist".
How do the laws of probability hold up? Pretty darn well, I'd say.
Here's the abstract (by the way, eLife IS an open source journal, so the journalist had no excuse here):
> To form and maintain organized tissues, multicellular organisms orient their mitotic spindles relative to neighboring cells. A molecular complex scaffolded by the GK protein-interaction domain (GKPID) mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues. Here we illuminate how this complex evolved and commandeered control of spindle orientation from a more ancient mechanism. The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which – the evolution of GKPID’s capacity to bind the cortical marker protein – can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GKPID. This change revealed and repurposed an ancient molecular surface that previously had a radically different function. We show how the physical simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution of a new protein function now essential to the biological complexity of many animals.
Key takeaways:
1) "A molecular complex scaffolded by the GK protein-interaction domain (GKPID) mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues"
Explanation: in this sentence, the scientists are carefully pointing out where the 'thing' (a protein domain) they are going to make a claim about fits into the biological picture. No, there isn't one superhero -- there's a carefully choreographed concert that their 'thing' is a part of.
2) "we illuminate how this complex evolved and commandeered control of spindle orientation from a more ancient mechanism"
Very cool. Simple statement. Interesting, but no grand claim.
3) "The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which – the evolution of GKPID’s capacity to bind the cortical marker protein – can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GKPID."
Again, they reiterate how there was actually a bunch of things happening ("a series of molecular exploitation events"), ONE of which is the cool one they want to talk about.
4) "This change revealed and repurposed an ancient molecular surface that previously had a radically different function."
If you were wondering what's cool, this is what's cool.
5) In conclusion: "We show how the physical simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution of a new protein function now essential to the biological complexity of many animals."
Hmm...no grand claim finishing claim made regarding how this ONE thing changed EVERYTHING. Again, we are reminded of the whole picture: "so yeah guys, here's how this protein function, which is essential (because it's part of a super complex dance number) for so many living things, probably came about".
I'm going to go commission a gold filigree copy of the laws of probability.
What are the laws of probability that you're referring to? I did a quick search, but didn't come up with anything that had at least 36 laws...
Great breakdown, thank you.
Mind you, the scientists still can't entirely stop themselves from making somewhat grandiose claims:
“That’s a very different paradigm for thinking about diseases like cancer,” Prehoda said. “It could allow us to think about new ways to develop therapies by focusing on genes that are involved in this unicellular to multi-cellular process.”
Mind you, the scientists still can't entirely stop themselves from making somewhat grandiose claims:
“That’s a very different paradigm for thinking about diseases like cancer,” Prehoda said. “It could allow us to think about new ways to develop therapies by focusing on genes that are involved in this unicellular to multi-cellular process.”
> simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution...
A lesson to learn in software development too.
A lesson to learn in software development too.
Thanks for looking into the original document and providing a detailed explanation. You are basically saying that the journalists sensationalized the findings. The researchers do not claim that they traced the most ancient mutation responsible for multicellularity. The researchers also do not claim that this single mutation created an almost functional multicellular organism.
Am I getting this right?
Yeah.
Indeed, the old local maxima problem. Why doesn't evolution get stuck in local maxima; what pushes it out of those valleys and into the mountains? Why have all our evolution simulations gotten stuck?
Luckily machine learning came along and has shown empirically that the solution is to increase the number of dimensions. Our tiny neural nets of the 90s also got stuck in local maxima. But when we could finally make huge and deep networks, the problem more or less disappeared.
I believe this is the real solution to the local maxima problem in evolution. Real evolution works with a massive number of parameters, which means exploration of the problem space doesn't get stuck in local maxima, just as it doesn't in Deep Learning. When the number of tweakable parameters outstrips the dimensionality of the problem space then there is always some angle pointing up out of the valleys.
This is a different, and I think more general way of expressing the typical counterargument which you explained. "There is always some angle pointing up" is a more general way of saying "just one mutation is usually enough to create a functional prototype".
Luckily machine learning came along and has shown empirically that the solution is to increase the number of dimensions. Our tiny neural nets of the 90s also got stuck in local maxima. But when we could finally make huge and deep networks, the problem more or less disappeared.
I believe this is the real solution to the local maxima problem in evolution. Real evolution works with a massive number of parameters, which means exploration of the problem space doesn't get stuck in local maxima, just as it doesn't in Deep Learning. When the number of tweakable parameters outstrips the dimensionality of the problem space then there is always some angle pointing up out of the valleys.
This is a different, and I think more general way of expressing the typical counterargument which you explained. "There is always some angle pointing up" is a more general way of saying "just one mutation is usually enough to create a functional prototype".
I think a simpler explanation for why evolution doesn't get stuck in local maxima is because the environment on earth hasn't been static. Resources get depleted, animals migrate to different habitats, mass extinctions occur, competitors enter and leave, etc. All of these change the balance of which genes aid survival at any given time and make a mutation that might have bad at one point good and vice versa.
I don't understand the comparison with the neural nets of the 90s and deep learning today. There was _human intelligence_ operating on the transition between these two technologies. How does evolution compare to this?
(honest question, because I probably didn't get the angle and problem space thing)
(honest question, because I probably didn't get the angle and problem space thing)
It's not about the design of the network, it's about the training. Optimizing the weights of a DNN is a non convex optimization problem solved using gradient based search for weights that minimize a loss function. If you can only search in 10 dimensions, it's harder to move in the correct direction. Once you're searching in 1000 directions, you can usually find a path that gets you to the right place. Think of it this way: there may exist a 10 dimensional solution, but it requires learning a very dense solution.
Ok, that made sense.
The question is not about how we got from old neural nets to new neural nets.
The question is about how a search works within old neural nets, vs. how a search works within new neural nets.
The question is about how a search works within old neural nets, vs. how a search works within new neural nets.
The single largest difference is simply the size of the networks. We are tossing billions of times more processing power at the same problems you see progress by simply change some constants.
PS: Of course there are also software / algorithm changes, but often same problem 1,000,000,000x the processing power just works.
PS: Of course there are also software / algorithm changes, but often same problem 1,000,000,000x the processing power just works.
It sounds like @fpgaminer is saying that when humans created something similar (the neural nets of the 90's) it had issues (local maxima) until we increased the complexity (the number of variables that the system could/did respond to) in a way that started approaching the complexity of evolution.
Thank you.
> Luckily machine learning came along and has shown empirically that the solution is to increase the number of dimensions.
Ah yes, that's just what brilliant scientists like Mendel, Darwin, Fisher, Wright, Watson et al. were missing: Deep Learning! /s. The number of local optima grows exponentially in problem dimension, so increasing the dimension simply provides an even stronger guarantee that your optimizer will converge to one. Evolution, for its part, is definitely stuck in one, as evidenced by the fact that I cannot fly.
Ah yes, that's just what brilliant scientists like Mendel, Darwin, Fisher, Wright, Watson et al. were missing: Deep Learning! /s. The number of local optima grows exponentially in problem dimension, so increasing the dimension simply provides an even stronger guarantee that your optimizer will converge to one. Evolution, for its part, is definitely stuck in one, as evidenced by the fact that I cannot fly.
Your statement is true-ish, but not true enough.
It is true there are more local minima, but they're generally pretty equivalent. In fact, in high dimensions, saddle points are a much bigger problem than local minima. [0] The fact that optimization works on these large, non-convex problems is kind of a marvel, and raises really interesting questions. (mostly "this shouldn't work this well unless there's some kind of regularity to these problems that makes them nicely behaved"). What this says about evolution I neither know nor care to speculate (above my pay grade).
[0] http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2572
Yes, the backpropaganda can get annoying.
It is true there are more local minima, but they're generally pretty equivalent. In fact, in high dimensions, saddle points are a much bigger problem than local minima. [0] The fact that optimization works on these large, non-convex problems is kind of a marvel, and raises really interesting questions. (mostly "this shouldn't work this well unless there's some kind of regularity to these problems that makes them nicely behaved"). What this says about evolution I neither know nor care to speculate (above my pay grade).
[0] http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2572
Yes, the backpropaganda can get annoying.
> The number of local optima grows exponentially in problem dimension, so increasing the dimension simply provides an even stronger guarantee that your optimizer will converge to one.
Forgive my potential ignorance, but it seems to me that there's a difference between the dimensionality of a problem and the dimensionality of a neural net working on the problem. Did you mean to imply that adding more dimensions to a neural net increases the number of local maxima for the problem?
> Evolution, for its part, is definitely stuck in one, as evidenced by the fact that I cannot fly.
Flying requires a large number of biological tweaks that are not necessarily good for every organism. For instance, lower bone density. When humans have this, we call it osteoporosis and it's generally a Bad Thing(tm).
Also, I could argue that evolution has done a better job than you give it credit for, considering that I don't know any other animal that can travel over land at sustained high speeds, fly at extreme altitude, swim to extreme depths, and burrow through mountains.
Forgive my potential ignorance, but it seems to me that there's a difference between the dimensionality of a problem and the dimensionality of a neural net working on the problem. Did you mean to imply that adding more dimensions to a neural net increases the number of local maxima for the problem?
> Evolution, for its part, is definitely stuck in one, as evidenced by the fact that I cannot fly.
Flying requires a large number of biological tweaks that are not necessarily good for every organism. For instance, lower bone density. When humans have this, we call it osteoporosis and it's generally a Bad Thing(tm).
Also, I could argue that evolution has done a better job than you give it credit for, considering that I don't know any other animal that can travel over land at sustained high speeds, fly at extreme altitude, swim to extreme depths, and burrow through mountains.
> Why doesn't evolution get stuck in local maxima
Is there any compelling reason to believe evolution _doesn't_ get stuck in local optima? It's not my field, so may be missing something obvious, but I see no reason that evolution requires complete avoidance of local optima. Different species could be the result of being "pulled" towards to different local optima. Local optima could disrupt evolution but, over time, a single large enough mutation or large enough change in external environment will either push you out of that optima, or stop it from being an optima.
Is there any compelling reason to believe evolution _doesn't_ get stuck in local optima? It's not my field, so may be missing something obvious, but I see no reason that evolution requires complete avoidance of local optima. Different species could be the result of being "pulled" towards to different local optima. Local optima could disrupt evolution but, over time, a single large enough mutation or large enough change in external environment will either push you out of that optima, or stop it from being an optima.
Cephalopod eyes are better than mammalian ones. They evolved independently, but cephalopods ended up with an arguably "better" solution, and mammals aren't about to swap their eyes around entirely given that their eyes work just fine, even with a blindspot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_eye
> In vertebrate eyes, the nerve fibers route before the retina, blocking some light and creating a blind spot where the fibers pass through the retina. In cephalopod eyes, the nerve fibers route behind the retina, and do not block light or disrupt the retina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_eye
> In vertebrate eyes, the nerve fibers route before the retina, blocking some light and creating a blind spot where the fibers pass through the retina. In cephalopod eyes, the nerve fibers route behind the retina, and do not block light or disrupt the retina.
Evolution most certainly DOES get stuck in local maxima: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1a1Ek-HD0 . Also, it's quite easy for me to imagine an animal like an angel, with arms and wings. Tetrapods only have 4 limbs to work with though. For bats to gain wings they had to lose their front legs.
One obvious local sticking point is mammalian cervical vertebrae (a couple critters have more or fewer, but basically you're stuck at 7 whether you're a rat or giraffe)
it is impossible for complex features such as wings, eyes etc to evolve because they will require a series of mutations that do not individually confer any evolutionary advantage
The answer to this proposition is that the fact we aren't aware of the evolutionary advantages which were obtained en route doesn't mean there weren't any.
The feathered wing is very complex and it won't fly until it has fully evolved, for example -- but as we learned quite recently, feathers evolved (and were an evolutionary advantage) because dinosaurs needed to stay warm. Birds can fly because a feather which is efficient at capturing air and keeping a giant lizard warm also turns out to be very efficient at pushing air and keeping a proto-avian aloft.
The answer to this proposition is that the fact we aren't aware of the evolutionary advantages which were obtained en route doesn't mean there weren't any.
The feathered wing is very complex and it won't fly until it has fully evolved, for example -- but as we learned quite recently, feathers evolved (and were an evolutionary advantage) because dinosaurs needed to stay warm. Birds can fly because a feather which is efficient at capturing air and keeping a giant lizard warm also turns out to be very efficient at pushing air and keeping a proto-avian aloft.
Phenomenon you are describing is called exaptation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation
> The answer to this proposition is that the fact we aren't aware of the evolutionary advantages which were obtained en route doesn't mean there weren't any.
Your argument begs the question. It is the same as saying: "since evolution actually happened, these mutations must have conferred some evolutionary advantage".
Your argument begs the question. It is the same as saying: "since evolution actually happened, these mutations must have conferred some evolutionary advantage".
That wasn't an argument. That was pointing out a flaw in the counter-evolution argument.
The fact that we are not aware of any evolutionary advantage conferred by a change yields no information in either direction about the validity of the evolutionary theory.
The fact that we are not aware of any evolutionary advantage conferred by a change yields no information in either direction about the validity of the evolutionary theory.
You might enjoy reading this book:
http://smile.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/01...
It summarizes the strongest evidence for evolution in several categories, including the fossil record; the evolution of various features like feathers, eyes, and wings; sings of path dependence that can only be explained by evolution, like the recurrent laryngeal nerve[0]; etc.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurrent_laryngeal_nerve#Evid...
http://smile.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/01...
It summarizes the strongest evidence for evolution in several categories, including the fossil record; the evolution of various features like feathers, eyes, and wings; sings of path dependence that can only be explained by evolution, like the recurrent laryngeal nerve[0]; etc.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurrent_laryngeal_nerve#Evid...
I'm giving you an up-vote for knowing the difference between begs the question and raises the question.
Even as someone fully accepting of evolutionary theory, this diagram felt like a revelation:
http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/17/30/76/23/evolut10.jpg
I don't understand what is the good from passing from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3.
In 1, light from any direction will fall on all the pigment cells equally. Essentially, your camera only has a single pixel--you can't tell direction at all, only degree of brightness.
In 2, light centered on the cup will fall on all the cells, but light from the side will be occluded by the edge of the cup and only fall on one side. Now you have a low-resolution camera, and can roughly tell which direction light is coming from.
In 3, light from any angle will only light up a small part of the cup's interior, allowing for greater precision--effectively, higher resolution.
In 2, light centered on the cup will fall on all the cells, but light from the side will be occluded by the edge of the cup and only fall on one side. Now you have a low-resolution camera, and can roughly tell which direction light is coming from.
In 3, light from any angle will only light up a small part of the cup's interior, allowing for greater precision--effectively, higher resolution.
From 1 to 2 you get directionality. 2 to 3 improves directionality a great deal (it's basically a continuum from depression to pinhole eye).
More light collection and higher resolution of details
The mutation from 4 to 5 is enourmous.
It's not a single step, it's just one sign post on a long highway (you can't show all of them). Every step along the way is pretty straightforward and immediately useful.
Eyes are an interesting example, because they are seemingly incredibly complex systems, yet eyes have evolved independently dozens of times. For example, octopuses and humans have equivalently complex eyes which have entirely different origins and have slight differences (for example, human eyes have a blind spot due to the nerve fibers being on top of instead of behind the light receptors).
Eyes are an interesting example, because they are seemingly incredibly complex systems, yet eyes have evolved independently dozens of times. For example, octopuses and humans have equivalently complex eyes which have entirely different origins and have slight differences (for example, human eyes have a blind spot due to the nerve fibers being on top of instead of behind the light receptors).
It is, but it's easy to imagine the continuum in your head. The lens getting sharper, getting muscles to shift it, the cornea getting clearer...
Seeing how you go from nothing to spot to pinhole lens eye is the critical part.
Seeing how you go from nothing to spot to pinhole lens eye is the critical part.
i wonder about the evolution from 5 to 6 (along the lines of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordi_La_Forge)
Did the original accompanying text say that each step was a single mutation, or is this just general evolution of sight?
I can't find the clip, but cosmos has a great segment on this. Here's a non-animated view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHgHI8YnsF8&feature=youtu.be...
Basically, they go through each of those stages, and shows what it would look like from the creatures point of view
Basically, they go through each of those stages, and shows what it would look like from the creatures point of view
> do not individually confer any evolutionary advantage
Genes which do not confer any advantage are just as likely to spread as ones that do. Evolution doesn't select for advantages, it selects against disadvantages. Evolution is just an emergent property of death.
Genes which do not confer any advantage are just as likely to spread as ones that do. Evolution doesn't select for advantages, it selects against disadvantages. Evolution is just an emergent property of death.
Not having an advantage that others have is a disadvantage, though.
The point is that a mutation that causes no harm can persist, resulting in traits that serve no discernible function. Later on, multiple harmless but non-useful mutations might together make something interesting happen. Therefore the local maxima problem is not really a problem.
[deleted]
>Since they do not have any evolutionary advantage, they cannot spread in the population
This is not true, the question isn't whether neutral changes can spread, but simply what percentage of molecular changes that spread are neutral. In fact I think that molecular evidence has shown pretty convincingly that on the genome scale most changes are neutral, vindicating the Neutral theory of evolution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_theory_of_molecular_ev...
This is not true, the question isn't whether neutral changes can spread, but simply what percentage of molecular changes that spread are neutral. In fact I think that molecular evidence has shown pretty convincingly that on the genome scale most changes are neutral, vindicating the Neutral theory of evolution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_theory_of_molecular_ev...
> It says that it is impossible for complex features such as wings, eyes etc to evolve because they will require a series of mutations that do not individually confer any evolutionary advantage.
This is just false. Evolutionary theory requires no such thing and there's plenty evidence that each step towards the evolution of things like the eye provides marginal advantage to the organism even though it's not fully an eye.
This is just false. Evolutionary theory requires no such thing and there's plenty evidence that each step towards the evolution of things like the eye provides marginal advantage to the organism even though it's not fully an eye.
Speaking of the evolution of the eye, recently I began reading the book The Vital Question (Nick Lane), and incidentally, last night I closed my reading on a discussion on that exact topic.
Allow me to quote [topic: 'The missing steps to complexity', page-45]:
"In The Origin of Species Darwin made the point that that natural selection actually predicts that intermediates should be lost. In that context, it is not terribly surprising that there are no surviving intermediates between bacteria and eukaryotes [e.g. plants, humans]. What is more surprising, though, is that the same traits do not keep on arising, time and time again -- like eyes.
We do not see the historical steps in the evolution of eyes, but we do see an ecological spectrum. From a rudimentary light-sensitive spot on some early worm-like creature, eyes have arisen independently on scores of occasions. That is exactly what natural selection predicts. Each small step offers a small advantage in one particular environment, with the precise advantage depending on the precise environment. Morphologically distinct types of eye evolve in different environments, as divergent as the compound eyes of flies and mirror eyes of scallops,or as convergent as the camera eyes that are so similar in humans and octopuses. Every conceivable intermediate from pinholes to accommodating lenses, is found in one species or another. We even see miniature eyes, replete with a 'lens' and a 'retina', in some single-celled protists [e.g. amoeba]."
Allow me to quote [topic: 'The missing steps to complexity', page-45]:
"In The Origin of Species Darwin made the point that that natural selection actually predicts that intermediates should be lost. In that context, it is not terribly surprising that there are no surviving intermediates between bacteria and eukaryotes [e.g. plants, humans]. What is more surprising, though, is that the same traits do not keep on arising, time and time again -- like eyes.
We do not see the historical steps in the evolution of eyes, but we do see an ecological spectrum. From a rudimentary light-sensitive spot on some early worm-like creature, eyes have arisen independently on scores of occasions. That is exactly what natural selection predicts. Each small step offers a small advantage in one particular environment, with the precise advantage depending on the precise environment. Morphologically distinct types of eye evolve in different environments, as divergent as the compound eyes of flies and mirror eyes of scallops,or as convergent as the camera eyes that are so similar in humans and octopuses. Every conceivable intermediate from pinholes to accommodating lenses, is found in one species or another. We even see miniature eyes, replete with a 'lens' and a 'retina', in some single-celled protists [e.g. amoeba]."
One common counterargument I ever head when talking to evolutionists is that some mutations are linked to others, so a mutation can spread through the population even though it does not confer any evolutionary advantage because it genetically linked to another evolution somewhere else that indeed confer advantage.
What do you think of it? Is it serious enough? Because I think there is an obvious flaw in it, the question: why are these mutations linked?
What do you think of it? Is it serious enough? Because I think there is an obvious flaw in it, the question: why are these mutations linked?
There are many reasons. Life re-uses structures, hormones, and proteins in different areas of the body for different functions. A mutation can make a structure more efficient in one area and have little effect in another... for now, but many mutations later that mutation can become a key enabler of a whole new class of features from the secondary structure.
It may also be that the gene doesn't confer any specific advantage but a population bottleneck or isolation event can spread it nonetheless.
It may also be that the gene doesn't confer any specific advantage but a population bottleneck or isolation event can spread it nonetheless.
I think you are talking about something known as hitchhiking mutations. Suppose an organism develops two mutations A and B, which lie close together in the chromosome. A is beneficial and B is neutral. When the chromosome is copied during reproduction, the copy will contain both A and B (because they are nearby). This copy will have an overall advantage because of the presence of A, and will spread in the population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_hitchhiking
Right. Thank you, that's probably this.
But the question remains: who put these genes near each other, so that something would evolve without being naturally selected just because its gene was near another gene?
What is the likeness of a gene near a gene that's "evolving" to be important somehow in the future of the evolution of that species?
But the question remains: who put these genes near each other, so that something would evolve without being naturally selected just because its gene was near another gene?
What is the likeness of a gene near a gene that's "evolving" to be important somehow in the future of the evolution of that species?
No one did. That's not how evolution works. There is no plan, and no one decided how it would work in the future. Your second question makes me think that you're thinking of evolution as "progress", that everything is evolving towards something. It is not. That is, you're asking, given an adaption, what is the likelihood of those genes existing? But that's backwards; the genes caused the outcome.
You're trying to insert purpose or intent into what is essentially accident. Most -- almost all -- changes like these either never have lasting consequences or are eventually undone. They are insignificant, and may not even have expression, unless and until they become significant because of subsequent changes.
You can insert supernatural interference into the process -- there's nothing but the principle of parsimony (Occam's razor) preventing that -- but you can't require it in order for things to work the way they apparently do/did work.
You can insert supernatural interference into the process -- there's nothing but the principle of parsimony (Occam's razor) preventing that -- but you can't require it in order for things to work the way they apparently do/did work.
I'm happy you're open to learning more about evolution.
Genetic linkage is a fairly advanced concept. For example, this (great) introductory Yale course doesn't even mention it. http://oyc.yale.edu/ecology-and-evolutionary-biology/eeb-122...
Every gene is next to another gene. You are right, the scenario you are detailing is unlikely - correspondingly, it happens very rarely.
Complex things we don't understand often seem magical.
Genetic linkage is a fairly advanced concept. For example, this (great) introductory Yale course doesn't even mention it. http://oyc.yale.edu/ecology-and-evolutionary-biology/eeb-122...
Every gene is next to another gene. You are right, the scenario you are detailing is unlikely - correspondingly, it happens very rarely.
Complex things we don't understand often seem magical.
Your comment suggests evolution is an open question. It is not.
Writing as a practicing Catholic, I'd say that your tone sounds too peremptory, but what you're saying is right. The Church, at least, isn't in the business of second-guessing the fossil record -- and besides, there are two contradictory Creation-myths in Genesis anyways, so they must not have been meant to be taken literally. (The Church traditionally allowed and encouraged two or three different ways of understanding Biblical texts figuratively; insisting that the surface meaning is the only meaning is a Protestant thing.)
For the curious, look up _Would you baptize an extraterrestrial?_ by Guy Consolmagno SJ and Paul Mueller, which discusses this and other science-y subjects.
For the curious, look up _Would you baptize an extraterrestrial?_ by Guy Consolmagno SJ and Paul Mueller, which discusses this and other science-y subjects.
It's not an accident that my tone is peremptory. There is a push from certain religious groups to paint the theory of evolution as being scientifically controversial. It is not.
Evolution is a fact. There is no scientific debate about that. There are only some people who read the Bible as contradicting science, and who therefore attempt to cast doubt on science so as to defend their interpretation of the Bible.
You are correct that the Catholic Church is not one of those groups, and hasn't been for many years. The Church's official position is that God is the architect of evolution.
Evolution is a fact. There is no scientific debate about that. There are only some people who read the Bible as contradicting science, and who therefore attempt to cast doubt on science so as to defend their interpretation of the Bible.
You are correct that the Catholic Church is not one of those groups, and hasn't been for many years. The Church's official position is that God is the architect of evolution.
I'm a (protestant, FWIW) Christian and I also believe evolution. This has taken some wrestling over the years.
My current understanding is that the creation myths in Genesis are non-literal stories, intended to be taken in ancient Mesopotamian context, primarily describing that the cosmos is God's temple. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_creation_narrative#Mes... )
My main problem at this point is that a central theme in the Bible as a whole is that death was caused by original sin, and wasn't originally part of God's creative plan. Obviously by the time mankind had evolved and sinned, death must have occurred, so I'm struggling to reconcile this one.
How do other Christians resolve this discrepancy?
My current understanding is that the creation myths in Genesis are non-literal stories, intended to be taken in ancient Mesopotamian context, primarily describing that the cosmos is God's temple. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_creation_narrative#Mes... )
My main problem at this point is that a central theme in the Bible as a whole is that death was caused by original sin, and wasn't originally part of God's creative plan. Obviously by the time mankind had evolved and sinned, death must have occurred, so I'm struggling to reconcile this one.
How do other Christians resolve this discrepancy?
Agnostic of Christian cultural background here: I think part of what is meant is that murder was caused by original sin. Sure, death from other causes would already have occurred in any case, but murder is still part of our world because we evolved as K-strategists in desperate competition with other members of our species; that original sin that we are struggling to leave behind, had to be the case because such competition is what drove us to evolve intelligence in the first place.
As for creation myths, we have a document written several thousand years ago which says the universe began in a flash of light and developed through several stages of increasing complexity, which I think is pretty impressive given that it wasn't until the mid-20th-century that science established this is indeed the case.
As for creation myths, we have a document written several thousand years ago which says the universe began in a flash of light and developed through several stages of increasing complexity, which I think is pretty impressive given that it wasn't until the mid-20th-century that science established this is indeed the case.
"As for creation myths, we have a document written several thousand years ago which says the universe began in a flash of light and developed through several stages of increasing complexity"
Stages are named as days, and the "omnipotent" god even gets tired and has to rest (!) the whole day after 6 in which he makes the whole word, including the "firmament" to keep the water on the heaven from not raining down all the time.
Doesn't have sense.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament
Stages are named as days, and the "omnipotent" god even gets tired and has to rest (!) the whole day after 6 in which he makes the whole word, including the "firmament" to keep the water on the heaven from not raining down all the time.
Doesn't have sense.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament
The use of the English word 'days' is effectively a mistranslation. As for the seventh day, that's a context switch for some life advice: after work must come rest, trying to work a seven-day week is stupid and harmful - something quite a few people nowadays would do well to remember.
Please give me some link to the "the day in Genesis is mistranslation" I'd like to read about it, since the only thing I can find is:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm
"ח וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָרָקִיעַ, שָׁמָיִם; וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם
שֵׁנִי. {פ}
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day." (Genesis 1:8)
Which word of those is mistranslated?
Note that because of this and similar lines the Jews count the days for celebration (including Shabbat) to have a beginning at the evening (Shabbat starts on Friday evening).
If you mean "yō·wm" here are all the places where the word was used in the Bible:
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/yom_3117.htm
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm
"ח וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָרָקִיעַ, שָׁמָיִם; וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם
שֵׁנִי. {פ}
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day." (Genesis 1:8)
Which word of those is mistranslated?
Note that because of this and similar lines the Jews count the days for celebration (including Shabbat) to have a beginning at the evening (Shabbat starts on Friday evening).
If you mean "yō·wm" here are all the places where the word was used in the Bible:
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/yom_3117.htm
It's the almighty that had to rest, not the people. The absurdity is obvious for everybody except the believers. But that is the definition of faith, believe, no matter what.
Easy, God has a specific meaning in mind but we are still too young to understand it.
Or the meaning got lost in translation.
Listen, if christian people (disclosure: I'm catholic) can rationalize genocide and enslavement of other people then rationalizing something like this should be easy.
Or the meaning got lost in translation.
Listen, if christian people (disclosure: I'm catholic) can rationalize genocide and enslavement of other people then rationalizing something like this should be easy.
But why would a single mutation immediately disappear? Isn't it possible that several generations carried on without significant advantage or disadvantage, experiencing series of mutations until the last one provided the true advantage? (I would love to know if this is completely wrong)
It is possible, but I think if you calculate the probability of the neutral mutations happening in series, this probability is astronomically small.
It is possible for all the mutations to appear simultaneously as well. But again, the probability would be astronomically small.
It is possible for all the mutations to appear simultaneously as well. But again, the probability would be astronomically small.
> Since they do not have any evolutionary advantage, they cannot spread in the population.
I think it's more the case that things may spread if they don't have any disadvantage (like causing death).
I think it's more the case that things may spread if they don't have any disadvantage (like causing death).
This goes against evolution theory.
In evolution theory things that do not have any evolutionary advantage neither spread or die off.
But in practice everything comes at a cost, so generally they will die off.
It cost calories to create feathers, so if not useful they will disappear.
In evolution theory things that do not have any evolutionary advantage neither spread or die off.
But in practice everything comes at a cost, so generally they will die off.
It cost calories to create feathers, so if not useful they will disappear.
The usual counterargument says that just one mutation is usually enough to create a functional prototype of a complex feature/organ (MVP, if you please). A series of mutations is not required.
That doesn't sound right at all. Look at the some of discussion of the 'Irreducible Complexity' examples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity#Stated_...
That doesn't sound right at all. Look at the some of discussion of the 'Irreducible Complexity' examples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity#Stated_...
You're going to have to be more specific about what doesn't "sound right", because I don't see anything in that article that contradicts what you quoted.
One mutation being enough to create "a functional prototype of a complex feature/organ (MVP, if you please)"? That's not how reality works!
You can't introduce a complex organ out of the blue by flipping a single gene anymore than you can add HTTPS handling to your webapp by changing a single opcode in your binary. For that to work, the structural and operational information must have already been there in the organism.
You can't introduce a complex organ out of the blue by flipping a single gene anymore than you can add HTTPS handling to your webapp by changing a single opcode in your binary. For that to work, the structural and operational information must have already been there in the organism.
I think that's exactly it. The groundwork for "complex" features must already be there in some sense, maybe through mutations or hitchhiking. The last mutation is probably like flipping the on-off boolean. Or maybe something dramatic like a keystone. I.e. the parts alone don't do anything, but you have this magical bit flipped that suddenly turns everything on and gives them significance.
But yeah one bit/mutation does not a feature make. Not without some prior stuff to latch on to, in my opinion.
But yeah one bit/mutation does not a feature make. Not without some prior stuff to latch on to, in my opinion.
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An injection system is not an 'MVP' of a flagellum, an organ for propulsion. What doesn't sound right is the idea that single mutations often produce essentially working versions of future complex features.
That objection is too hung up on advantage.
Best i can tell, all that is needed for something to be carried forward is for it to not be a hindrance.
Thus, a proto-wing could very well linger for generations without going anywhere simply because it does not hinder the lineage's survival.
Never mind that the planet has not been the shape we see it in for the entire time.
Best i can tell, all that is needed for something to be carried forward is for it to not be a hindrance.
Thus, a proto-wing could very well linger for generations without going anywhere simply because it does not hinder the lineage's survival.
Never mind that the planet has not been the shape we see it in for the entire time.
This is just plain wrong and a scary strawperson.
Google how the eye evolved, it didn't just mutate it was a series of slow gradual mutations.
What you are suggesting goes against evolution theory (which is ok with proper evidence)
It's a mutation theory which is hard to find a lot of info on and I can't find the proper name of.
But it is considered incorrect.
Google how the eye evolved, it didn't just mutate it was a series of slow gradual mutations.
What you are suggesting goes against evolution theory (which is ok with proper evidence)
It's a mutation theory which is hard to find a lot of info on and I can't find the proper name of.
But it is considered incorrect.
If this seriously _had_ happened all on its own (apparently it didn't) then I'd be thinking the exact opposite -- this would tend to make me re-consider intelligent design.
However, it didn't.
However, it didn't.
>One common objection to the theory of evolution claims...
There is a common objection?
There is a common objection?
There are plenty of objections. Polls consistently show that something like 40-50% of Americans are creationists [1]. And this doesn't mean something vague like God guided evolution, but that evolution is an outright lie promoted by scientists and possibly invented by nefarious metaphysical creatures and that in any case the Earth is only a few thousand years old, so there couldn't have been time for Evolution to happen. The fact that you probably don't know these people is more than likely a testament to how people self-segregate into like-minded groups who reinforce each others' beliefs.
All these Creationists have heard of evolution and have reasons not to believe it.
[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/170822/believe-creationist-view-h...
All these Creationists have heard of evolution and have reasons not to believe it.
[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/170822/believe-creationist-view-h...
The objections from such people have been fully and repeatably refuted. I doubt this new finding will cause any of them to reevaluate their position.
You're changing the topic. The fact that such arguments are "fully and repeatably refuted" does not dissuade people from making the arguments as much as you might think.
They are probably similarly amazed so many other people don't believe in God and the literal word of the Bible as much as they do.
A (pretty smart) friend of mine tried to show me that scientists' findings about he Earth's age are wrong because he read aome article about errors in the estimation technique.
He then argued that therefore Earth is not very old and evolution didn't have time to happen.
I was amazed...
He then argued that therefore Earth is not very old and evolution didn't have time to happen.
I was amazed...
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It's quite frustrating that the illogical latch onto morsels/islands of logic that are convenient for their agenda.
You can pick and choose your religion, but you can't pick and choose with logic.
You can pick and choose your religion, but you can't pick and choose with logic.
Probably, but that's very much beside the point that a huge pile of evidence points towards theory of evolution being true.
An argument from authority (My Holy Bible says that God exists!) is quite a bit less convincing than many lines of inquiry ending up at the same place.
An argument from authority (My Holy Bible says that God exists!) is quite a bit less convincing than many lines of inquiry ending up at the same place.
Is there another way than a mutation, propagation to an offspring(s), survival and successful reproduction of these, then over-reproducing others due to this adaptation (or by a pure chance) etc?
I thought multicellularity on Earth evolved independently around 50 times? So it does kind of make sense that it would be the result of something as simple as a single SNP that changes a function of a protein from whatever to binding to proteins of external organisms. Perhaps more complex mechanisms (multiple mutations) wouldn't have the likelyhood of occuring so many times
"In the wild world of pre-complex life, this development was orders of magnitude better than Twitter for getting organisms organized." Ha ;)
Obviously important to understand actual modern problems like cancer, but in a broad sense this is just the beginning of coming to a complete picture of the origin of metazoa. This was a single mutation that ends up in all animals, but perhaps other mechanisms were also involved in making the mutation survive and win.
insights into life at that time rely on researchers’ imaginations
Where is this 600M years taken from? big claims based on assumptions, I don't like this kind of science, building on too many assumptions and you are going too far from the truth and this is the opposite of what science tries to achieve.
Where is this 600M years taken from? big claims based on assumptions, I don't like this kind of science, building on too many assumptions and you are going too far from the truth and this is the opposite of what science tries to achieve.
Since the researcher was reconstructing the evolution of a protein I would say the date was determined using a technique called the molecular clock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_clock
That and the rise of multi-cellular life marks the beginning of the Cambrian explosion (542M years ago). That gives 60M years for the mutation to spread and specialize.
That and the rise of multi-cellular life marks the beginning of the Cambrian explosion (542M years ago). That gives 60M years for the mutation to spread and specialize.
The Cambrian explosion is late in this game; this would be about the emergence of the Ediacaran biota (largely fractal-like body plans, followed by organisms with more specialised structural groups and less-local symmetries) and simpler aggregate colony organisms like sponges, which seemed to come out of nowhere quickly after the Cryogenian. The Cambrian explosion seems to have been mostly about riffing on the bilateral symmetry lick.
Where is this 600M years taken from?
I didn't read the paper, but probably this technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_clock
I didn't read the paper, but probably this technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_clock
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AKA the "Cambrian Explosion". I wasn't aware this was new. I remember this in HS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion
The Cambrian Explosion has been known for quite some time. This is a theory of HOW the Cambrian Explosion happened. One single mutation. Interesting ideas for sure!
What? 600M years? Really?
Are you folks aware that 1000 years is already a very long time? Any number bigger than, say 100.000 years is just the same as infinity, regarding to time.
This "infinity" problem simply requires too much faith, and will never have real evidence. Not very good attributes for a credible theory.
Maybe it's about time to get a better one, with less time involved? This way the faith required would be at a real human reachable level.
Are you folks aware that 1000 years is already a very long time? Any number bigger than, say 100.000 years is just the same as infinity, regarding to time.
This "infinity" problem simply requires too much faith, and will never have real evidence. Not very good attributes for a credible theory.
Maybe it's about time to get a better one, with less time involved? This way the faith required would be at a real human reachable level.
> Any number bigger than, say 100.000 years is just the same as infinity, regarding to time.
Tell that to a geologist or an astrophysicist and you'll be laughed out of the room. There's plenty of evidence of timescales in the millions and billions of years.
Tell that to a geologist or an astrophysicist and you'll be laughed out of the room. There's plenty of evidence of timescales in the millions and billions of years.
Exactly the opposite is true: theres is overwhelming evidence that the Universe (and our solar system) can't be older than just thousands of years.
Often in history majority was wrong. And history is repeating itself, repeatedly.
Often in history majority was wrong. And history is repeating itself, repeatedly.
overwhelming evidence that the Universe (and our solar system) can't be older than just thousands of years
i'm very curious about your sources.
i'm very curious about your sources.
> Are you folks aware that 1000 years is already a very long time?
Geologically? Not at all. It's 0.000022% of the age of the Earth.
Geologically? Not at all. It's 0.000022% of the age of the Earth.
If you take, let's say, 10 thousand years, and try to explain every single detail of our planet, in all branches of science involved, you get the whole picture completely painted, without contradictions.
Big numbers are just imagination, there's nothing you can prove about it. The so-called "measured" numbers of the age of different fossils etc. found are actually selected numbers of years: they pick the ones they agree with their theory, and discard all the others (that is, the majority). Very scientific, indeed :/
Big numbers are just imagination, there's nothing you can prove about it. The so-called "measured" numbers of the age of different fossils etc. found are actually selected numbers of years: they pick the ones they agree with their theory, and discard all the others (that is, the majority). Very scientific, indeed :/
Are you saying that when 'god' promises eternal life, he's actually short selling us and means it's just 100k years? What a ripoff! </joke>
Who talks about God? We're talking about scientific evidence. Big numbers are just imagination (see my other comment).
I'm aware about the creationist newish trick of trying to remove the 'god' factor out of their 'theory' during arguments.
Simple Newtonian physics could easily prove you can't /possibly/ reach a stable equilibrium in a system of the mass of the earth/moon for example in just 6k years. Let alone all the other fancy goodies flying around in the rest of the universe.
We don't need fossil records there. So unless the fairy in the sky built the universe, let it sat unused on a shelf for 13+ billion years THEN decided having Adam seems like a cool idea to break the boredom of perfectly stable orbits...
Simple Newtonian physics could easily prove you can't /possibly/ reach a stable equilibrium in a system of the mass of the earth/moon for example in just 6k years. Let alone all the other fancy goodies flying around in the rest of the universe.
We don't need fossil records there. So unless the fairy in the sky built the universe, let it sat unused on a shelf for 13+ billion years THEN decided having Adam seems like a cool idea to break the boredom of perfectly stable orbits...
the article over generalizes the find to be basically bereft of real information.
"Instead of working as enzymes (proteins that facilitate reactions inside the cell) the proteins were now what’s known as an interaction domain. They could communicate with and bind to other proteins, a useful skill for cells that have decided to trade the rugged individualist life for the collaboration of a group"
Enzymes switch between being enzymes and interaction domians across all taxa everywhere in the tree of life, so this is not the "money shot". Moreover, unicellular life do plenty of intracellular, collaborative communication (e.g. quorum sensing).
Reading the paper, the specific switch enabled the orientation of cell division to be communicated from one cell to another. This is interesting because this communication is not over an anisotropic chemical gradient, but encodes directional and spatial information.
"Instead of working as enzymes (proteins that facilitate reactions inside the cell) the proteins were now what’s known as an interaction domain. They could communicate with and bind to other proteins, a useful skill for cells that have decided to trade the rugged individualist life for the collaboration of a group"
Enzymes switch between being enzymes and interaction domians across all taxa everywhere in the tree of life, so this is not the "money shot". Moreover, unicellular life do plenty of intracellular, collaborative communication (e.g. quorum sensing).
Reading the paper, the specific switch enabled the orientation of cell division to be communicated from one cell to another. This is interesting because this communication is not over an anisotropic chemical gradient, but encodes directional and spatial information.
This is the closest that article gets to an "explanation":
> A single mutation that repurposed a certain type of protein. Instead of working as enzymes (proteins that facilitate reactions inside the cell) the proteins were now what’s known as an interaction domain. They could communicate with and bind to other proteins, a useful skill for cells that have decided to trade the rugged individualist life for the collaboration of a group.
Which is total gibberish. Yet unsurprisingly the abstract to the actual paper (helpfully linked in the wapo article: http://elifesciences.org/content/5/e10147) is gibberish to me for different reasons.
Is anyone expert enough to attempt a "for technical dummies" reading?
> A single mutation that repurposed a certain type of protein. Instead of working as enzymes (proteins that facilitate reactions inside the cell) the proteins were now what’s known as an interaction domain. They could communicate with and bind to other proteins, a useful skill for cells that have decided to trade the rugged individualist life for the collaboration of a group.
Which is total gibberish. Yet unsurprisingly the abstract to the actual paper (helpfully linked in the wapo article: http://elifesciences.org/content/5/e10147) is gibberish to me for different reasons.
Is anyone expert enough to attempt a "for technical dummies" reading?
I'll have a go. Disclaimer: I'm not a biologist; corrections welcome.
Consider a growing multicellular organism. It grows by a process of cell division. Each division turns one cell into two adjacent cells. The structure it ends up with will depend on the orientation of those dividing cells (you'll tend to get growth "along the axis of division", so to speak).
A wide variety of multicellular organisms have a mechanism that orients cells according to features on the outside of neighbouring cells. (It "mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues", as the abstract puts it. The "mitotic spindle" is a structure involved in cell division, also called mitosis. It's mostly made out of long thin things called microtubules, and its job is to separate the chromosomes for the two new cells, which it does using "motor proteins". The cell cortex is the inner surface of the boundary of the cell.)
One part of this process is the way in which a protein involved in the mitotic spindle attaches itself to that thing on the cell cortex. The relevant bit of that protein is called the "guanylate kinase protein interaction domain" or GK_PID for short. A protein interaction domain is a bit of protein that interacts with other things; multiple different proteins can contain instances of the same interaction domain, just as multiple different programs can contain (say) the same code for computing SHA-256 checksums.
The paper reports evidence that a single mutation enabled the GK_PID to attach itself to the marker on the cell cortex. ("The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which – the evolution of GK_PID’s capacity to bind the cortical marker protein – can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GK_PID."
So. This doesn't say that multicellularity was enabled by a single mutation. It says that one small but important part of a process that's necessary for complex multicellular organisms was enabled by a single mutation. Still pretty cool, but the journalistic science->hype conversion machine is clearly operating as usual here.
Consider a growing multicellular organism. It grows by a process of cell division. Each division turns one cell into two adjacent cells. The structure it ends up with will depend on the orientation of those dividing cells (you'll tend to get growth "along the axis of division", so to speak).
A wide variety of multicellular organisms have a mechanism that orients cells according to features on the outside of neighbouring cells. (It "mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues", as the abstract puts it. The "mitotic spindle" is a structure involved in cell division, also called mitosis. It's mostly made out of long thin things called microtubules, and its job is to separate the chromosomes for the two new cells, which it does using "motor proteins". The cell cortex is the inner surface of the boundary of the cell.)
One part of this process is the way in which a protein involved in the mitotic spindle attaches itself to that thing on the cell cortex. The relevant bit of that protein is called the "guanylate kinase protein interaction domain" or GK_PID for short. A protein interaction domain is a bit of protein that interacts with other things; multiple different proteins can contain instances of the same interaction domain, just as multiple different programs can contain (say) the same code for computing SHA-256 checksums.
The paper reports evidence that a single mutation enabled the GK_PID to attach itself to the marker on the cell cortex. ("The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which – the evolution of GK_PID’s capacity to bind the cortical marker protein – can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GK_PID."
So. This doesn't say that multicellularity was enabled by a single mutation. It says that one small but important part of a process that's necessary for complex multicellular organisms was enabled by a single mutation. Still pretty cool, but the journalistic science->hype conversion machine is clearly operating as usual here.
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The scientific article makes a far from convincing case for the purported importance of this mutation. The journal its published in (eLife) is not exactly known for high-quality comparative genomics / molecular evolution work either. The Washington Post article is misleading at best. Hyperbole.
I find the number of young-earth creationists in disguise here very surprising.
As another comment noted, some of the participants in this thread about the interesting article kindly submitted here appear to be unaware of the factual basis for evolutionary theory. For anyone who wonders how we know that the earth is much more than 600 million years old, or how we know that current living things descended from a common ancestor, more or less remote depending on how closely related the current living things are, see 29+ Evidences for Macroevolution: The Scientific Case for Common Descent,[1] which is a very informative and interesting website with a lot of information about biological facts and geological facts that have been discovered since you and I graduated from high school.
[1] http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/
[1] http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/
How does it impact the probability of extraterrestrial life? I mean, after 4 billion years of relative peace, Earth still had only single-celled organisms. And it would have stayed that way, if not for this particular mutation. So it is not just how many planets can support life. First, it will need to continuously keep supporting life for billions of years before any form of intelligent life can emerge. THEN it has to wait till such a pathbreaking mutation occurs, which might take a random amount of time. I am starting to gravitate towards the lower bound of what the Drake equation estimates to be the number of planets with intelligent life. (= we are probably alone in the universe)
Don't worry too much about the possibility of multicellular life in other planets [0]. This press article is totally overhyped.
Read this comment of bmer about the original research article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10884255
[0] [Or to be more precise, IIRC the transition from bacteria to eucariota is more difficult. I'd worry about that step instead.]
Read this comment of bmer about the original research article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10884255
[0] [Or to be more precise, IIRC the transition from bacteria to eucariota is more difficult. I'd worry about that step instead.]
The usual counterargument says that just one mutation is usually enough to create a functional prototype of a complex feature/organ (MVP, if you please). A series of mutations is not required.
This study provides yet another example backing this counterargument. One single mutation can change an unicellular entity and make it behave like a multi cellular organism. Intuitively, one would think this would take many mutations. However, intuition is wrong in this case, and in many others.