Defining life: as emergent protein molecular property (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 27, 2016, 04:50 (3103 days ago) @ David Turell

Continuing with part 2:-http://inference-review.com/article/genes-without-prominence
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Testing to see how a bacterium responds to previously un-encountered environmental conditions, Akiko Kashiwagi et al. equipped an E. coli bacterium with a plasmid containing two operons enabling the cell to exploit two nutrient sources.82 Each operon suppressed the other if deployed. Fluorescent assays indicated which operon was active. When confronted by a major environmental change, the cell, the authors assume, has to find and adopt a new signal transduction route using natural selection. In this case, the bacterium was given the solution that natural selection might have found, but no signal transduction route. On switching the bacteria from one nutrient source to the other, metabolic activity initially dropped dramatically, but after an hour or so increased again, signaling that the alternative nutrient was being metabolized. The authors concluded that the bacterium was able to select between attractors each adapted to the appropriate nutrient conditions much more rapidly than conventional theory would predict.-"There is no role for natural selection here.-***-"Mauno Rönkkö has developed a virtual ecosystem based on information-bearing particles.85 Each particle—whether a speck of the soil, grass, rain, a worm or beetle, or a scent emitted by grass—carries information that enables it to interact with other particles in highly specific time-dependent ways. Running the full sequence of particle interactions animates the organisms in the ecosystem. In principle, cells in multicellular organisms could carry such information in their phenotypes. That information specifies associations with other cells, and from it emerges the organism's form.86 Diversity in biological form can, therefore, be seen as a result of variation in cellular phenotype, derived from protein chemistry.-***-"Consider now the ecosystem. All organisms evolve in the context of an ecosystem and each influences the other. Evolution is not a passive process. In the words of Annila, “everything depends on everything else,” and outcomes are therefore non-linear.-"Evolution is often seen as a struggle for survival among species. Darwin's third chapter in the Origin is, after all, entitled “Struggle for Existence.” But if a stable ecosystem is an attractor state, as I would propose, predation cannot be on the only guarantor of its stability. A steady state between competitive and cooperative behavior is inescapable. Cooperation in nature is sometimes called symbiosis. ( my bold) African acacias, for example, are able to produce tannin. Tannin is toxic to mammals such as kudus and giraffes. Overgrazed acacia trees release ethylene, a plant hormone that stimulates trees downwind to produce protective tannin.-"The South African bird, the honeyguide, seems to cooperate with other species by showing them the location of bee colonies...Beeswax is a potent free energy source, but honeyguides are almost unique in being able to metabolize it.-"According to Claire Spottiswoode, the honeyguide is also a highly virulent brood parasite. Honeyguide chicks are reared by a species that neither cooperates with partners nor consumes beeswax...But there is another interesting issue here: how do honeyguide chicks know how to behave in partnership? How do they know that beeswax is good to eat? They apparently are not taught by their parents, who abandon them as soon as the egg is laid.-"It is a puzzle to Spottiswoode as well.-Comment: Note my bold. This is an example of balance of nature. All symbiosis is part of the balance. I suggest plowing through the entire article. Neo-Darwinism is completely incomplete. The honeyguide chicks are an example of an unexplained wonder of nature, perhaps God's intervention.