Mike Gene ja Flagellan evoluutio

Mike Gene on pro-ID nimimerkki, joka on kirjoittanut aktiivisesti älykkäästä suunnittelusta ja evoluutiosta. Hän ilmaisi skeptisyyttä Nick Matzken flagellahypoteesiä kohtaan. Matzke yritti selittää miten bakteeriflagella olisi voinut kehittyä. Gene on aikaisemmin kritisoinut ja ehdottanut mitä vaadittaisiin, jotta hän voisi hyväksyä hypoteesin vakuuttavaksi.

Tieteellisen tutkimuksen ja vuosien vierimisen myötä Matzken hypoteesi on vahvistunut. Ja Gene on vähemmän skeptinen. Asiaan liittyy monimutkainen selonteko eri proteiinien homologioista. Pähkinänkuoressa voidaan todeta, että Mike Gene ei enää näe tarvetta suurelle skeptisyydelle. Flagella on voinut kehittyä.

In The Design Matrix, I explore how the concept of IC interfaces with cooption and intelligent design and offer the following as part of my approach:

Instead, independent evidence is needed to support such a hypothesis of cooption cobbling a machine together. This does not mean we need something that amounts to a proof. Nor does it mean that an exhaustive Darwinian explanation is needed. On the contrary, the evidence we need is extremely modest and lacking in detail……First, if an irreducibly complex machine did evolve into existence through cooption, then the parts must have predated the machine. They must have been doing something else prior to being recruited into the machine. Thus, some evidence of this pre-machine activity is needed. Since we cannot travel back in time, we will have to settle for traditional evidence of common descent. Do the various parts of the machine have homologs that are in turn part of a system that is more ancient than the machine?

Multiple points of homology between the components of the F-ATPase and flagellum/TTSS would clearly qualify as “various parts of the machine” having “homologs that are in turn part of a system that is more ancient than the machine.” Thus, if I were to assign a Discontinuity Score to the flagellum, it would reside within the negative realm of the continuum.

And it becomes more interesting when we realize that the themes of cooption, modularity, and subfunctionalization have apparently played critical roles in the evolution of the bacterial flagellum. This is something to dig into at a later date.

Toistaiseksi William Dembski tai Michael Behe eivät ole kommentoineet uusia tutkimuksia. Odotamme innolla miten he puolustavat ID-liikkeen maskottia.

(Ed Braytonin kautta)