n page 179 of Darwin's Black Box Michael
Behe claims:
- "There has never been a meeting, or a book,
or a paper on details of the evolution of complex
biochemical systems."
He closes the chapter with this ludicrous statement:
"In effect, the theory of Darwinian molecular
evolution has not published, and so it should
perish"
(Did someone say
publish or perish?: The
Elusive Scientific Basis of Intelligent Design Theory)
To be honest, I suspect that the extent of detail Behe
is demanding would require a combination cutting-edge
biochemistry lab and a time machine. How else can science
fully recover, for example, every single step in the
evolution of the bacterial flagellum that took place
billions of years ago?
In any case the claim itself is false since papers do
in fact exist that attempt to flesh out the details of
the evolution of various biochemical systems and
structures. Many such citations are included below.
But that is only part of the story. There are
thousands of additional published papers containing solid
and detailed evidence of biochemical evolution:
- Evidence of gene duplications and subsequent
functional divergence, or functional loss in the
form of pseudogenes.
- Evidence of exon shuffling and modular re-use
within proteins.
- Evidence of both natural selection and neutral
drift at the molecular level.
- Evidence of the malleable and adaptive nature of
molecular evolution itself. For example in recent
shocking cases of bacterial drug resistance - the
evolution of evolvability.
- Evidence that the phylogeny inferred from protein
and DNA sequence comparisons is correlated with
the phylogeny inferred from evolutionary biology.
- Evidence that within every studied
biochemical system, the "parts"
themselves have evolved, and the interactions between
those parts have also evolved. Are we to believe
that an intelligent designer builds with
components that evolve via the blind forces of
mutation, selection and drift?
Most of the citations and abstracts below were found
using the PubMed
MEDLINE search engine and microbiology database. A
simple search reveals that there are over 13,000 articles
that contain "evolution" as a major
subject keyword - hardly the dead silence that Behe
proclaims. Granted many of these do not directly address
the problem of adaptive complexity in biochemical
systems, but many of them do.
Note that I have excluded papers that discuss sequence
comparisons being used solely to determine lines of
descent. Michael Behe already admits that common descent
is reasonable.
Keep in mind this is only a small sampling of
citations collected from my own searches, and from the
suggestion of others (thanks for those suggestions!)
Last but not least. Please
help me find more citations and continue to grow this
page - especially if you have a background in
biochemistry or microbiology. Thank you.
Introduction
Books
- Cells, Embryos, And Evolution: Towards a
Cellular and Developmental Understanding of
Phenotypic Variation and Evolutionary
Adaptability - a recent
textbook by John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner (1997
Blackwell Science) - "In
writing Cells, Embryos, and Evolution, our aim
has been to continue what Darwin started: to
understand not only the influence of selection on
the path of evolution, but also the capacity of
the organism to generate heritable variation upon
which selection can act."
Preface
/ amazon.com
bookstore
- Four
Billion Years An Essay on the Evolution of Genes
and Organisms by Willam F. Loomis
- Vital
Dust : Life As a Cosmic Imperative
by Christian De Duve
- Many of these books suggested by David Ussery,
Ph.D (thanks!):
- +Molecular
Strategies in Biological Evolution -
Proceedings of a New York Academy of
Sciences conference, June 27-29, 1998. Lynn
Helena Caporale, Editor.
- +Molecular
Approaches to Ecology and Evolution by by Rob
Desalle (Editor), B. Schierwater (Editor)
(98)
- +Molecular
Evolution by Wen-Hsiung Li (97)
- +Patterns
in Evolution: The New Molecular View by Roger
Lewin (96)
- +Chemical
Evolution: Physics of the Origin and Evolution of
Life (96)
- +Tracing
Biological Evolution in Protein and Gene
Structures (96)
- +Molecular
Evolution (Biomathematics V. 24) by Vadim
Aleksandrovich Ratner (Editor) (96)
- +GENE
FAMILIES STRUCTURE FUNCTION GENETICS AND
EVOLUTION Proceedings of the VIII
International Congress on Isozymes (95)
- +Genetics
and Evolution The Molecules of Inheritance (New
Encyclopedia of Science) (95)
- +The
Causes of Molecular Evolution (94)
- +The
Origins of Order Self-Organization and Selection
in Evolution by Stuart A. Kauffman (92)
- +Molecular
Evolution of the Major Histocompatibility Complex
(92)
- +Molecular
Evolution on Rugged Landscapes; Proteins RNA and
the Immune System by Stuart A. Kauffman (91)
- +Evolution
at the Molecular Level by Robert K.
Selander, Andrew G. Clark, Thomas S. Whittam
(Editor) (91)
- +Evolution
of Life: Fossils Molecules and Culture by S.
Osawa, T. Honjo (Editor) (91)
- +Molecular
Theory of Evolution (85)
- +Multidomain
Proteins Structure and Evolution
- +Evolutionary
Design by Computers edited by Peter
J. Bentley. Book & CD-ROM
edition (May 1999) Amazon.com
or Amazon.co.uk
- Yes, evolution does produce
irreducible complexity!
- +Search
for Life on Mars by Malcolm Walter, 1999
- contains origins of life scenarios
Conferences
- +Do
Genomes Enhance Their Own Evolution? - "At a
conference on molecular strategies in biological
evolution, researchers discussed how evolutionary
strategies can evolve, making the process of
evolution more efficient."
- +New
Passion for Evo-Devo - Fifth Annual Meeting
of the Society for Molecular Biology and
Evolution
Immune System
Blood Coagulation
Globin
Flagella and Cilium
Other Motor Proteins
- +Kinesin
Motor Phylogenetic Tree - Behe likes to play
down the importance of sequence comparisons. It's
no wonder - just click around this diagram for a
while. It becomes obvious that an important motor
protein like kinesin has gradually evolved across
many species. From the Kinesin
HomePage.
Actin
Cell Membrane - Receptors, Pumps,
etc.
Citric Acid Cycle (Krebs Cycle)
Amino Acid Biosynthesis
Gylcolysis
Photosynthesis
Lysozome
Vision
Development
Transcription / Translation /
Duplication
Drug resistance is biochemical evolution
Other
General
Someone say Intelligent?
Cancer as Molecular Evolution
Test Tube and Artificial Evolution
Origin of Life and Cells
More Visitor Submissions
(thanks!)
Here are a number of articles from a quick search of
the Journal of Biological Chemistry using the word
"evolution" at http://www.jbc.org/
--
Andrew P. Spicer and John A. McDonald Characterization
and Molecular Evolution of a Vertebrate Hyaluronan
Synthase Gene Family J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:
1923-1932.
Catherine TomHon, Wei Zhu, David Millinoff, Kenji
Hayasaka, Jerry L. Slightom, Morris Goodman, and Deborah
L. Gumucio Evolution of a Fetal Expression
Pattern via cis Changes near the Globin Gene J.
Biol. Chem. 1997 272: 14062-14066.
Chien-Chia Wang, Andrey Pavlov, and Jim D. Karam Evolution
of RNA-binding Specificity in T4 DNA Polymerase
J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272: 17703-17710.
David R. Gang, Hiroyuki Kasahara, Zhi-Qiang Xia, Kristine
Vander Mijnsbrugge, Guy Bauw, Wout Boerjan, Marc Van
Montagu, Laurence B.Davin, and Norman G. Lewis Evolution
of Plant Defense Mechanisms. RELATIONSHIPS OF
PHENYLCOUMARAN BENZYLIC ETHER REDUCTASES TO
PINORESINOL-LARICIRESINOL AND ISOFLAVONE REDUCTASES
J. Biol. Chem. 1999 274: 7516-7527.
Elizabeth A. Bucher, Gurtej K. Dhoot, Mark M. Emerson,
Margaret Ober, and Charles P. Emerson, Jr. Structure and Evolution
of the Alternatively Spliced Fast Troponin T Isoform Gene
J. Biol. Chem. 1999 274: 17661-17670.
Florence Magrangeas, Gilles Pitiot, Sigrid Dubois,
Elisabeth Bragado-Nilsson, Michel Chrel,
Sverin Jobert, Benoit Lebeau, Olivier Boisteau,
Bernard Leth, Jacques Mallet, Yannick Jacques, and
Stphane Minvielle Cotranscription and
Intergenic Splicing of Human Galactose-1-phosphate
Uridylyltransferase and Interleukin-11 Receptor -Chain
Genes Generate a Fusion mRNA in Normal Cells. IMPLICATION
FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MULTIDOMAIN PROTEINS DURING
EVOLUTION J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273: 16005-16010.
James E. Hagstrom, Michael P. Fautsch, Monique Perdok,
Anne Vrabel, and Eric D. Wieben Exons Lost and
Found. UNUSUAL EVOLUTION OF A SEMINAL VESICLE
TRANSGLUTAMINASE SUBSTRATE J. Biol. Chem.
1996271: 21114-21119. [
Juan Ausi Histone H1 and Evolution of Sperm
Nuclear Basic Proteins J. Biol. Chem. 1999 274:
31115-31118.
M. Neale Weitzmann, Kerry J. Woodford, and Karen Usdin DNA
Secondary Structures and the Evolution of Hypervariable
Tandem Arrays J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272:
9517-9523.
Marieta Costache, Pol-Andr Apoil, Anne Cailleau,
Anders Elmgren, Gran Larson, Stephen Henry, Antoine
Blancher, Dana Iordachescu, Rafael Oriol, and Rosella
Mollicone Evolution of Fucosyltransferase Genes
in Vertebrates J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272:
29721-29728.
Medeiros, Edward G. Rowan, Alan L. Harvey, and Andr
Mnez On the Convergent Evolution of Animal
Toxins. CONSERVATION OF A DIAD OF FUNCTIONAL RESIDUES IN
POTASSIUM CHANNEL-BLOCKING TOXINS WITH UNRELATED
STRUCTURES J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272: 4302-4309.
Ronald E. van Kesteren, Cornelis P. Tensen, August B.
Smit, Jan van Minnen, Lee. F. Kolakowski, Jr., Wolfgang
Meyerhof, Dietmar Richter, Harm van Heerikhuizen, Erno
Vreugdenhil, and Wijnand P. M. Geraerts Co-evolution
of Ligand-Receptor Pairs in the Vasopressin/Oxytocin
Superfamily of Bioactive Peptides J. Biol. Chem.
1996 271: 3619-3626.
Sandra K. Parker and H. William Detrich III Evolution,
Organization, and Expression of -Tubulin Genes in the
Antarctic Fish Notothenia coriiceps. ADAPTIVE EXPANSION
OF A GENE FAMILY BY RECENT GENE DUPLICATION, INVERSION,
AND DIVERGENCE J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:
34358-34369.
Stefanie Brumme, Volker Kruft, Udo K. Schmitz, and
Hans-Peter Braun New Insights into the
Co-evolution of Cytochrome c Reductase and the
Mitochondrial Processing Peptidase J. Biol.
Chem. 1998 273: 13143-13149.
Stephan M. Mhlebach, Thomas Wirz, Urs Brndle,
and Jean-Claude Perriard Evolution of the
Creatine Kinases J. Biol. Chem. 1996 271:
11920-11929.
Zhe Lu, Elisa Cabiscol, Nuria Obradors, Jordi Tamarit,
Joaquim Ros, Juan Aguilar, and E. C. C. Lin Evolution
of an Escherichia coli Protein with Increased Resistance
to Oxidative Stress J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:
8308-8316.
(major MeSH 1998 Jan-May)
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