How math interprets biology and life, and the cosmos (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 04:51 (3995 days ago) @ David Turell

David: I think the legitimate answer is we don't know where prions fit in. I'm glad you are back, and I hope it is for a good length of time. What's happened with your book?-I dug into the final proof of my book for prions: -"Another alternative to early information-bearing proteins,
other than RNA, is prions. These are the same type of proteins
that cause mad cow disease. Recently, prions have been found to
manage changes in wild yeast, changes that are beneficial and
helpful especially when the the yeast is under stress. And these
changes are inheritable.-Quoted study: Prions were first found to produce heritable new traits
more than a decade ago in laboratory studies of simple
baker's yeast. The key discovery then was that some proteins
could spontaneously switch from a normal shape into
a self-perpetuating prion conformation. The switch to the
prion state alters protein function, which can result in the
appearance of new traits, some helpful, some detrimental.
Sophisticated cellular machinery ensures that replicating
[reproducing] prion templates are chopped into pieces
that can be passed to daughter cells during cell division.
Importantly, the rate at which proteins switch into and
out of the prion state increases in response to environmental
stress, suggesting that they are part of an inherent
survival mechanism that helps yeasts adapt to changes in
their surroundings. All the prions appear capable of creating
diverse new traits, nearly half of which are beneficial.
Convinced of the impact prions have had on yeast evolution,
the researchers speculate that these shape-shifting
The Atheist Delusion: Science IS Finding God 91
proteins may be "remnants of early life," from a time when
inheritance was predominantly protein-based rather than
nucleic-acid based (Prions are a common mechanism for
phenotypic inheritance in wild yeasts. Nature, 2012; 482
(7385): 363 DOI: 10.1038/nature10875).-This discovery with information-bearing prions opens up a
new theoretical area of an early attempt at an origin of life. But
it is a surprising odd-ball discovery considering what has been
thought to be reasonable in the past. Prions are proteins. The big
issue is how did they start? Where did their information come
from? In other words, prions have the same problems all the
other molecules have, which have been considered or attempted."-As I said, interesting but don't advance any theories.