Posted on 01/21/2009 8:07:52 AM PST by GodGunsGuts
Antibody Variation Is Not Evolution
by Brian Thomas, M.S.*
Researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan have uncovered a key step in the formation of antibodies. It was already known that the immune system generates a variety of antibodies in response to an invading pathogen. The recent study discovered that many of the necessary antibody variations are produced when a cellular copying procedure is slowed down.1
Antibodies are manufactured with variations on one end, the “light chain” end. When a specific light chain variation is found that locks onto the outermost molecules of the invading bacterium or virus, the antibody marks the microbe for destruction. The correctly-fitting antibody is then identified and mass-produced by the immune system.
Antibody light chain variation occurs through the acceleration of mutations. The antibody genes are copied to RNA and a special enzyme called “activation-induced deaminase” encourages the shuffling of just the base sequences that will become the light chain. The new research demonstrated that when transcription is slowed down—a process called RNA transcription stalling—this base-exchanging process moves from just one base at a time to multiple bases. This “hypermutation” causes faster production of antibody variations, thus enhancing their disease-combating potential.
Though this discovery was hailed as “evolution in action,” the antibody formation procedures show distinct marks of intentional design.2 Creation scientists have described the capacity of antibodies to hypermutate as a well-designed and purposeful biological process.3 This interpretation is borne out by the specifications of the process, each of which represents information that nature alone has no mechanism to generate. The three-dimensional structure of activation-induced deaminase, the placement of mutations (RNA base changes) specifically on the tips of the antibodies, and the placement of immunoglobulin genes into appropriate segments of the genome so they can be transcribed together are some of the specifications required for antibody variations to effectively achieve their purposes.
The term “evolution” can be used to describe any change in biological systems, or it can refer specifically to Darwinian evolution. However, a step-by-step progression from simple to complex living organisms, as Darwinian evolution predicts, is not observed in either living or fossil forms. Nor does antibody variation have anything whatever to do with Darwinian evolution. In actuality, biological adaptations such as antibody diversity are created mechanisms that exist for specific purposes and only work because all of their parts are precisely ordered.
The variety of antibodies that can be formed is an important part of the immune system’s ability to detect and fight disease. The variety of definitions under the banner “evolution,” however, is often only effective in providing false confidence that “Darwinian evolution” is true.
References
1. Canugovi, C., M. Samaranayake, and A. S. Bhagwat. 2009. Transcriptional pausing and stalling causes multiple clustered mutations by human activation-induced deaminase. The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 23 (1): 33-44.
2. Evolution in action: Our antibodies take “evolutionary leaps” to fight microbes. The FASEB Journal press release, accessed January 12, 2009.
3. Bergman, J, and N. O’Sullivan. 2008. Did immune system antibody diversity evolve? Journal of Creation. 22 (2): 92-96.
ping!
To reject the theory of evolution is ridiculous; however, to assume that biological mechanisms so elegant and complicated would have developed by chance or accident, in no matter how many billions of years, is equally ridiculous.
I wasn’t even aware that anybody was seriously asserting that it was. I would say that the existence of a system by which foreign antigens are recognized and attacked is an evolutionary adaptaion however.
==To reject the theory of evolution is ridiculous; however, to assume that biological mechanisms so elegant and complicated would have developed by chance or accident, in no matter how many billions of years, is equally ridiculous.
Then you reject the ToE. The modern ToE holds that all the super-sophisticated designs we find in living things are the product of random mutations that survive natural selection.
Why would you say that?
Everyone recognizes variation within species.
Extrapolating that to mean that *speciation* or *macro-evolution* can occur, is just conjecture and wishful thinking, which is NOT science.
Basing a theory on forensic evidence and circumstantial evidence is not following the scientific method and therefore technically not science either.
==I would say that the existence of a system by which foreign antigens are recognized and attacked is an evolutionary adaptaion however.
How could the foreign antigens be recognized and attacked if the genetic mutations required to recognize and attack them (as per neo-Darwinism) are purely random?
==Everyone recognizes variation within species.
That is one of the most difficult things to get through the heads of the Evos. Both sides agree that there is variations within species. Creationists merely point out that to extrapolate said variations to cross every taxonomic boundary is refuted by every single line of evidence we currently have at our disposal.
I still can’t decide one way or the other on the evolution question. I believe in God, and am thinking that evolution, if it is true, is simply a method by which God creates life. If evolution is a process used by God, then to criticize evolution would be to criticize God. Therefore I am somewhat cautious about criticizing evolution, because I simply don’t know if it’s true (and of God) or not.
No. Not necessarily. God’s creation has infinite means and manifestations, chaos among them.
That is nonsense!
You should stop making these pronouncements about science. With each one you demonstrate your lack of familiarity with the subject.
What part of Omnipotent do you not understand? If God wanted life to evolve from the first quantum event of the Universe he would make it so. If He wanted life to evolve from the event without His further intervention, He would make it so.
The current ToE holds that blind mutations that survive natural selection produce the super-sophisticated designs we find in biology. Indeed, according to the ToE, all design is merely an optical illusion because all mutations are random and undirected. If ever there was a “theory” that made God superfluous to His own creation, this is it.
Sympatric speciation has been observed. The fact that one species can evolve to another is irrefutable and undeniable.
But if God is using what we call chaos to achieve His purposes, then in reality what we (in our ignorance) label as chaos isn’t really chaos at all.
The simplest example is ring species:
Ring species provide unusual and valuable situations in which we can observe two species and the intermediate forms connecting them. In a ring species:
- A ring of populations encircles an area of unsuitable habitat.
- At one location in the ring of populations, two distinct forms coexist without interbreeding, and hence are different species.
- Around the rest of the ring, the traits of one of these species change gradually, through intermediate populations, into the traits of the second species.
A ring species, therefore, is a ring of populations in which there is only one place where two distinct species meet. Ernst Mayr called ring species "the perfect demonstration of speciation" because they show a range of intermediate forms between two species. They allow us to use variation in space to infer how changes occurred over time. This approach is especially powerful when we can reconstruct the biogeographical history of a ring species, as has been done in two cases. Source
Precisely. What is it about omnipotence that you do not understand?
There are two basic immune responses,a humoral response involving antobodies and a cell mediated response which involves things like Killer T-cells. I would hypothesize that a primitive cell mediated immunity evolved first and, later, humoral immunity. The existence of one or both immunities would have conferred a huge advantage to the creatures possessing it and they would have copied their genes more frequently as a result. Then again, perhaps cell mediated immunity came about by a means which is not strictly gene mediated. Look at the Remora and the shark for instance. The Remora offers a form of cell mediated immunity to the shark by following it around and eating pathogenic organisms that would otherwise, potentially, cause problems to the shark. This is not entirely different from the relationship between killer T-cells and mammals. except that our “remora” exists internally and has long since lost its identity as a seperate symbiotic species.
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