[grey_whiskers]

"1. Some proteins are made by creating sub-assemblies first, then putting the pre-fab parts together, rather than cranking out a protein ab initio one amino acid at a time. The details of how THAT process happened one mutation at a time would be pretty interesting :-)"

Something funny here. All proteins are built one amino acid at a time. If these proteins are subunits of a larger structure (often an enzyme) then the assembly occurs after the subunits (which are proteins) are fully formed.

Slight miscommunication here...that is my point. Has anyone worked out the details of how random mutations tell the cell to take what had hitherto isolated subunits, and start constructing THEM into a larger structure. (The A & B subunits of hemoglobin, for example...)

Thanks for picking up the Wimsey reference; one of my favorite authors. Have you noticed all of the Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare references sprinked throughout the dialogue ?

Cheers!

[furball4paws]

I doubt that our level of knowledge is sufficient to answer your question at this time. Certainly mine isn't. But Science progresses every day so who knows?

I pick up references in several posters and I think it's a breath of fresh air sometimes. I started a little Ogden Nash earlier.

We'll be watching you more closely from now on. b_sharp and Gumlegs and Doctor Stochastic are particularly good at this stuff.