An inventive mechanism: nylon eating bacteria (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 13:34 (3663 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Spetner's new book describes something I have forgotten. Nylon is new to the world, but there are bacteria that can metabolize nutrients from it after about 20 years from the appearance of nylon. There are at least two species of bacteria that can do it. It involves the development of two enzymes, the same ones in both species. Not new species but new metabolism. IM or did God know nylon was coming? This is I feel an epigenetic IM.-A clear example of an organism altering parts of itself in order to exploit a change in its environment. As you say, the species remains the same - this is a minor adaptation. But if organisms have the potential to change their own metabolism, the question arises as to how far they can carry the process. No-one has ever observed the formation of a new species, and so all explanations are hypothetical. In this case, however, we know from observation that organisms have a mechanism that enables them to make changes in themselves. We should therefore accept the possibility that in conditions unknown to us that same mechanism might be capable of more fundamental changes.