Genome complexity: de novo or orphan genes (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, August 26, 2015, 22:09 (3157 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: More research and discussion. It seems a genetic tree of life has huge gaps. And they present a chicken-egg problem. How do they get coordinated into the genetic makeup if they just pop up de novo?:-https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150818-a-surprise-source-of-lifes-code/-QUOTE: “Scientists also want to understand how de novo genes get incorporated into the complex network of reactions that drive the cell, a particularly puzzling problem. It's as if a bicycle spontaneously grew a new part and rapidly incorporated it into its machinery, even though the bike was working fine without it. “The question is fascinating but completely unknown,” Begun said.” -***
QUOTE: “'How does novel gene become functional? How does it get incorporated into actual cellular processes?” McLysaght said. “To me, that's the most important question at the moment.'”-David's comment: This is why I believe in theistic evolution.-Many thanks for some very interesting threads, and in particular for this one. For me it raises the whole image of the macrocosm in the microcosm. If new genes can spring from nowhere and incorporate themselves into existing structures, wouldn't this mirror the whole process of innovation that drives evolution? The Cambrian Mystery is solved if new structures can emerge from nowhere.
 
Theistic evolution? Are you going to tell us that God plans every novel gene? Or might it be that God invented a mechanism that comes up autonomously with an infinite number of novelties? Or might it even be that there is no single mind there at all, but billions of little minds within billions of globules of matter coming up with billions of new combinations? Ah, my friend the intelligent cell....