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To: narby

I'd think you'd have to have copies of the same bacteria from prior to nylon to show that the enzyme didn't already exist in some of them doing the job of digesting something else...or having a degree of variability giving it different looks in different individual bacteria.


1,469 posted on 12/20/2005 6:07:38 PM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: xzins

The enzyme very likely did exist previously to nylon but with another, somewhat related, use. Nylon is a polyamide and amidases are very common in all organisms. I suggest you look up the concept of "enzyme recruitment" and E.C.C. Lin. The enzyme, however, may not have existed in the current bacterium since horizontal gene transfer is quite common in bacteria.


1,480 posted on 12/20/2005 6:16:21 PM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
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To: xzins
I'd think you'd have to have copies of the same bacteria

It's not the same bacteria, it digests nylon now. It's evolved.

1,495 posted on 12/20/2005 6:36:02 PM PST by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: narby; xzins; furball4paws
More on the Nylon Bug here.
1,679 posted on 12/20/2005 9:43:45 PM PST by MRMEAN (Better living through nuclear explosives)
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