Early embryology; clockwork construction plan (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 15:38 (4785 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: The researchers said that “even the smallest change would end up leading to the emergence of a new species”, and they described it as demonstrating the “extraordinary complexity of evolution”. I asked for your explanation, and you said they meant monsters which were unlikely to survive.......

Their meaning was my best guess. I think it was a throw away line. I apologize for misunderstanding your brief statement re the definition of evolution.

That sits uneasily with the words they used, and would block, not facilitate evolution, so I asked if they’d got it wrong, expressed themselves misleadingly, or really had got to the source of the mutations that result in new species. Is there no possible link here with the Hox clock? My questions are genuine, I’d never heard of the Hox clock till now, and I’m not pushing any particular theory. You should know me better!

Hox genes ( from the word homeobox) are the master planning genes in the genome for various parts of the musculoskeketal body and for organ systems.. They have great power, which is why they are under tight controls and they MUST act in time sequence. Thus the Hox clock, also a new term, and 'cute'.

Now you have made me wonder: could there be a major Hox controlling code that allows for the jumps that result in new species? Random mutations are too dangerous to relay on them for advancement. Not through the clock mechanism but a major coordinated set of changes in the Hox genes.