Bacterial Intelligence? (General)

by David Turell , Friday, January 30, 2015, 19:08 (3583 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Friday, January 30, 2015, 19:36

dhw: How does their opinion invalidate that of Shapiro, Margulis, McClintock, Albrecht-Bühler and Co.? -It is simply a different way of viewing the same observations. The bacteria act very intelligently. No question. When one asks how they do it, the Shapiro interpretation and the ID approach are just as equally reasonable.-An article today shows how proteins can control cell activity in reproduction. Do these cells control their activities or do instructions control the cells? It is the same way as I view bacteria.-http://phys.org/news/2015-01-protein-fertility-roles-sperm-eggs.html-"The BRWD1 protein is fascinating as it serves a completely different function in both sperm and eggs. In oocytes, we have yet to determine the epigenetic mechanisms that lead to chromosome instability. This study contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms of chromosome condensation in the female germ cell." (my bold)-"They determined that in sperm, when BRWD1 is absent, transcripts from hundreds of genes—all specific to spermatid development—were markedly reduced, suggesting that in males BRWD1 is responsible for regulating gene activity."-"By contrast, in oocytes, a lack of BRWD1 results in a surge of bad information via noncoding RNAs, and only three genes showed a dramatic increase in expression. Chromosomes were often abnormally long or fractured, and chromatids did not condense properly or stuck to one another only to stretch or break when they tried to separate. In other words, BRWD1 is necessary for chromosome stability during female meiosis."