From: Party of Citizens (citizens@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Wed Jun 04 2003 - 12:39:36 MDT
On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, Party of Citizens wrote:
>
> > Can you or the Drosophilus Dude from UBC give me a reference to a journal
> > which describes an adaptive mutation in fruit flies?
> > POC
>
> I cannot provide an "adaptive" mutation in fruit flies. However
> I believe that there are at least two strains of "dwarf" mice
> which show extended longevity. Now why "dwarf" mice should
> have this characteristic is open to a lot of debate.
Yes, the question had to do with ADAPTIVE or useful mutations from the
beginning (to Mr. Butler). Of course adaptive and useful are not quite the
same. And one can ask whether in nature the maladaptive features of those
mice would outweigh the adaptive features.
OTOH there are a number of dramatic adaptive success stories for gene
splicing. If our "Detective Columbo" of science came from Mars and saw the
evidence on the two lines of research, he might conclude that life evolved
by intelligent, pre-meditated design (gene splicing) here and not by
random mutation followed by selection. Perhaps he would ask whether his
Extropian Martian ancestors had done some "panspermia" experiments on this
planet long ago, as they had done on so many other planets, using gene
splicing-genetic engineering methods and thereby produced the species we
see today.
POC
> But the Jackson Laboratory is happy to provide them to you to
> find out... For example:
>
> http://jaxmice.jax.org/jaxmice-cgi/jaxmicedb.cgi?objtype=pricedetail&stock=000643.014c
>
> Documents the "Snell's dwarf" mouse.
>
> Now as to whether the mutation is "adaptive" -- the world only
> has to undergo a brief exposure to the radiation from a supernova
> which may cause a decrease in food resources and the "dwarves"
> will likely be the winners in the selection game.
>
> In normal conditions presumably "dwarf" mice have a survival advantage
> in any environment where food resources are diminished.
>
> Robert
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jun 04 2003 - 12:52:06 MDT