Evolution: Darwinist wishful thinking (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 22:35 (2005 days ago) @ David Turell

They take scant evidence and invent just-so stories to explain evolution when there is no way to know why these compounds were evolved by plants:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/magic-mushroom-drug-evolved-to-mess-...

"Normally, you’d expect such a complex and powerful chemical as psilocybin – the magical ingredient -- to be produced by a closely related group of organisms whose common ancestor discovered it once.

"But not in this case. Scores of mushroom species – one even lichenized -- from five different distantly-related families make it. A team of American scientists wondered about that, and had a hunch about why it might be.

"They tested their hunch by, for the first time, identifying the psilocybin-producing genes (there turned out to be five) and comparing the versions found in the various magic mushrooms. And sure enough: the genes shared the same origin. The psilocybin gene cluster had somehow found its way into distantly related species through a process called horizontal gene transfer.

***

"Although mushroom-making fungi, considered sophisticated and complex for the fungal world -- have only rarely been caught sharing DNA this way, the fact that they have made an exception for these genes implies psilocybin is a seriously hot item.

"But why? A better question might be what, exactly, does a coffee bush get out of making caffeine, or a coca plant out of making cocaine? Why do magic mushrooms bother to be magic? They aren’t getting magical trips out of the deal.

David: So far, so good.

"The surprising reality is that the majority of naturally-produced recreational drugs – caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, morphine, and psilocybin – evolved to be, if not quite insecticides, then scramblers of insect brains. The fact that our brains are enjoyably scrambled by them too is sheer coincidence, but also speaks to the uncomfortable truth that your brain is not so different from a cockroach’s as you might like to think. (Of course, you’re not so different from a plant either)

David: Wow! now the so-called evidence:

"A plant has an obvious motive for stockpiling a chemical arsenal: salad bar prevention. But what about mushrooms? The majority of psilocybin-producing mushrooms are either wood or dung decayers. In those environments, they are not only being eaten by insects, but also competing with them for food. Termites are major fungal competitors inside decaying logs, but a variety of other wood- and dung-eating insects compete with fungi for food.

"Psilocybin may help tilt the playing field in the fungus’s favor by causing insects to, I don’t know, maybe blank on what they went in that log for again? Another serotonin antagonist to a receptor called 5HT-2A causes Drosophila fruit flies to somehow neglect to eat the fruit they’re sitting on. Whatever they're experiencing, though, is unlikely to be fun. Insects lack the dopamine-based reward systems also triggered by many of the drugs that makes them so pleasurable and addictive to humans (although psilocybin acts on serotonin receptors and is non-addictive). (my bold)

"A plant has an obvious motive for stockpiling a chemical arsenal: salad bar prevention. But what about mushrooms? The majority of psilocybin-producing mushrooms are either wood or dung decayers. In those environments, they are not only being eaten by insects, but also competing with them for food. Termites are major fungal competitors inside decaying logs, but a variety of other wood- and dung-eating insects compete with fungi for food.

Psilocybin may help tilt the playing field in the fungus’s favor by causing insects to, I don’t know, maybe blank on what they went in that log for again? Another serotonin antagonist to a receptor called 5HT-2A causes Drosophila fruit flies to somehow neglect to eat the fruit they’re sitting on. Whatever they're experiencing, though, is unlikely to be fun. Insects lack the dopamine-based reward systems also triggered by many of the drugs that makes them so pleasurable and addictive to humans (although psilocybin acts on serotonin receptors and is non-addictive). (my bold)

***

"In the process of searching for the psilocybin-producing genes, the scientists made another discovery: there was less variation in the gene content of distantly-related wood decay fungi than between decay fungi and their close relatives in other habitats. The common thread between wood and dung decaying fungi may be the shared interest in attacking tough plant fibers like lignin and in repelling the insects that compete with them. The fact that their shared environment seems to be a stronger driver of gene content than shared ancestry is quite stunning, I think."

Comment: This writer makes evolution as purposeful as we are, a chance mechanism which can use purposeful changes to advance the newer complexities. All dream-like suppositions without any proof, just stretched facts beyond recognition.