Genome complexity: evidence of non-random mutation (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, January 31, 2022, 20:07 (809 days ago) @ David Turell

From a new way of analysis:

https://phys.org/news/2022-01-uncovers-evidence-long-term-directionality-human.html

"A new study by a team of researchers from Israel and Ghana has brought the first evidence of nonrandom mutation in human genes, challenging a core assumption at the heart of evolutionary theory by showing a long-term directional mutational response to environmental pressure. Using a novel method, researchers led by Professor Adi Livnat from the University of Haifa showed that the rate of generation of the HbS mutation, which protects against malaria, is higher in people from Africa, where malaria is endemic, than in people from Europe, where it is not.

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"Unlike other findings on mutation origination, this mutation-specific response to a specific environmental pressure cannot be explained by traditional theories. "We hypothesize that evolution is influenced by two sources of information: External information that is natural selection, and internal information that is accumulated in the genome through the generations and impacts the origination of mutations," said Livnat.

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"However, the only alternative at the fundamental level conceived of up until now consisted of variants of Lamarckism—the idea that organisms can somehow respond directly to their immediate environments with beneficial genetic change. Since Lamarckism has not worked in general, the notion of random mutation remained the prevailing view.

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"In breaking a new accuracy record, their method allowed something not previously possible—counting of de novo mutations for particular points of interest in the genome.

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"Contrary to the widely accepted expectations, the results supported the nonrandom pattern. The HbS mutation originated de novo not only much faster than expected from random mutation, but also much faster in the population (in sub-Saharan Africans as opposed to Europeans) and in the gene (in the beta-globin as opposed to the control delta-globin gene) where it is of adaptive significance. These results upend the traditional example of random mutation and natural selection, turning it into an example of a nonrandom yet non-Lamarckian mutation.

"'Mutations defy traditional thinking. The results suggest that complex information that is accumulated in the genome through the generations impacts mutation, and therefore mutation-specific origination rates can respond in the long-term to specific environmental pressures," said Prof. Livnat. Previous studies, motivated by Lamarckism, only tested for an immediate mutational response to environmental pressures. "Mutations may be generated nonrandomly in evolution after all, but not in the way previously conceived. We must study the internal information and how it affects mutation, as it opens the door to evolution being a far bigger process than previously conceived," Livnat concluded.

"Until now, investigators have been limited by technology to measuring mutation rates as averages across many positions in the genome. Overcoming this barrier, the new method developed by Livnat and Melamed allowed the HbS mutation to be the first to have its mutation-specific origination rate measured, opening up new vistas for studies on mutation origination. These studies have the potential to affect not only our fundamental understanding of evolution, but also our understanding of diseases that are caused by mutations, namely genetic disease and cancer."

Comment: Livnat says complex information accumulates in the genome to guide it. Did God create the mechanism to accumulate information? What is not covered is the effect of dying from malaria causing a growth of immune survivors by subtraction from the original population.