Genome complexity: variation within species (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 15, 2016, 20:23 (2900 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: With variation and with alternative pathways, the adaptations may be relatively automatic, relatively if partially resistant organisms have to have several generations to arrive at complete resistance.

dhw: A nice bit of Darwinian itty-bitty improvement. Do partially resistant organisms just die more slowly? I don’t understand what you mean by “relatively automatic”. The expression has nothing to do with a gradually improved resistance. Either the process is completely automatic or organisms take decisions of their own.

See my other entry on the subject today with the reference article. Some partially resistant organisms survive and reproduce more resistant progeny until the existing population is fully resistant, just as in the E. coli antibiotic resistance discussion we had. The 'partially automatic' refers to the reproductive process which takes several generations to work.

dhw: … if you insist that bacteria are programmed to find the right pathway (since you believe they are automatons), what alternative do you have to the claim that your God must have preprogrammed the first cells to pass on solutions to every single problem that bacteria might encounter throughout the history of life?

DAVID: Generally no alternative except dabbling which we have discussed.

dhw: Thank you. That is the nub of the matter. According to you, the first cells contained and passed on programmes for millions of solutions for bacteria, millions of innovations, millions of lifestyles and natural wonders. The only alternative is God intervening every time bacteria have a problem. Your article on killifish raises the same issue: your God provided the first cells with all the different pathways necessary for the killifish to resist pollutants (but to hell with those species that perish) – or each time he sees the killifish under threat, he steps in. I wonder why the killifish is so much more important to God than the fish that perish. Impossible for humans to exist without killifish?

I doubt there was any need for dabbling here. Their variability gave them a way out of extinction through reproduction by the partially resistant.