Front end loading (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, September 26, 2008, 00:29 (5901 days ago) @ George Jelliss

I've not heard of this concept of "front end loading" before. > 
 
 
> Here's anothet article. Is this an example of "front end loading"? It seems unsurprising to me that structures developed for one function are adapted for other functions by evolution. It is just working with the material it has. 
> "Yale researchers have shown that the origin and evolution of the placenta and uterus in mammals is associated with evolutionary changes in a single regulatory protein."
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918171155.htm - 'Front end loading' is an obvious term if one thinks as I do, and concluded from all the reading I did. It seems curious to me that DNA is arranged million of years in advance to provide a new function when activated probably by RNA in the distant future. It certainly looks like pre-planning, but I agree that certainly doesn't prove that it is. Note that my view comes from the fact that I think DNA and RNA contain coded information, not just making protein by code, but HOX genes RNA managing a group of genes coded with constructional information. Think about building a house. Construction plans have coordinated time lines for various parts. We have recognized some of the controls (HOX and miRNA), but I haven't seen any discoveries in how that control is coded. It has to be very complex, not the simplistic triplet coding for single amino acids. That is why the idea of front-end loading appeals to me. It simplifies the development of complexity. I know that George thinks complexity is just an accident of a chance process, but the arrow of evolution relentlessly pursues complexity. I am not aware of evolution returning to simpler organisms over a prolonged period of time.