Do Useful Mutations Occur?

Question

http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/short_history_04.html

quote:
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there was a serious problem: It was true that mutations changed the genetic data of living organisms, yet this change always occurred to the detriment of the living thing concerned. All observed mutations ended up with disfigured, weak, or diseased individuals and, sometimes, led to the death of the organism. Hence, in an attempt to find examples of "useful mutations" which improve the genetic data in living organisms, neo-Darwinists conducted many experiments and observations. For decades, they conducted mutation experiments on fruit flies and various other species. However, in none of these experiments could a mutation which improved the genetic data in a living being be seen.
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Answer 1

Do useful mutations occur in religion and spirituality? Yes,and you know this or you would not have asked the question.Mutation is a science term for transformation on a genetic level.If science could read DNA better,they would see it mutate,as the sinner was transformed into the saint,whatever that may mean to you.One of the main differences between humans and animals is,we must "mutate" consciously.

Answer 2

Do Useful Mutations Occur? -- If the plant or animal lives better then I would say yes they do. Being human how would we know what mutation took effect? Maybe the animal hears or sees better, but looks the same. Or a plant gets more energy with less sun - how would know to measure this?
It sounds like that if animal and plants don't walk or talk to us or build a rocket there is no evidence of mutation. Probably because humans only live such a short time - in 1 million years I'm sure we will notice a difference in Elsie the cow, as she drives down the road to get her nails done at the mall.

Answer 3

Timewind, is that your website? The writing sure sounds like you.
I'm for you anyway, either way.
It is at least an interesting question.
Science and Religion may or may not be the opposite ends of the same pole but I doubt very seriously that the two will ever consummate a marriage of thought and idea. To my mind, that's as it should be. One has built it's house on faith and the other on provable analysis. I'm still open to all new information and experimentation. (as long as the experiment is done in an ethical and agreeable manner.)
Keep searching for the truth, it lies just over the next horizon of thought and waits patiently to be discovered and explained. Good on you.

Answer 4

I think that for this discussion to go any further, it would be a good idea to investigate how we choose our mates and why. There have been alot of investigations into it, some televised programs, like "The Nature of Things" reporting studies done on couples who chose people whose faces they are used to seeing. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all.

Genetic mutations occur, for instance, as you pointed out, like Siamese twins, which would, in the "old days" never be born, but die, for they could not be born, and their mother with them. So in the modern era, due to C-section, we are seeing more and more defects.

Some defects are not caused by genetic selection, but by poisonous environments. For instance, in firemen and farmers, both professions that work with harsh chemicals, the incidence of leukaemia and Down's Syndrome (respectively) is higher in that population. (Possibly autism as well, and brain tumours)

Perhaps we can conclude from this data that we are having difficulty adapting to poison in our environment, but then, a parallel study on defects in animals should be undertaken to see if the same defects are occurring there as well.

Answer 5

I don't believe in Darwin's theory or God..so that leaves me with Leakey's theory or that we came from the sea. Xrays of whales fins have shown finger bones, wrists and elbow bones, apparently they were too cumbersome on land so they went back to the sea growing flippers and fins, which is a useful mutation.

I don't think I'm answering your question properly, but they graft cells onto humans and grow ears on their arms or where ever, new noses..etc.. that's a useful mutation in it's own way.

As far as mutations genetically, I can't think of any I have read or heard of.

good question though.

Answer 6

Yep.

When a genetic change occurs, the label changes according to the end product.

If its useful..theyll call it evolution.

If its not, theyll call it mutation.

lol dunno what all the fuss is about..

someone should try explaining why some genes chose to get mutated and some dont...as if they have a mind of their own...or do they :)

Answer 7

There are, but it can be hard to tell.

For a number of reasons it is not simple to give examples of favorable mutations. First of all, as we have seen, traits [6] may be favorable or unfavorable, depending upon the environment. Secondly it is not usually known to what extent a trait is genetically fixed and to what extent it reflects a reaction to the environment. Thirdly we don't usually know what genes effect which traits. Moreover a mutation may be favorable in the sense that it permits survival in an unfavorable environment and yet be unfavorable in a better environment.

However there are a number of good examples:

1. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria

In modern times antibiotics, drugs that target specific features of bacteria, have become very popular. Bacteria evolve very quickly so it is not surprising that they have evolved resistance to antibiotics. As a general thing this involves changing the features that antibiotics target.

Commonly, but not always, these mutations decrease the fitness of the bacteria, i.e., in environments where there are not antibiotics present, they don't reproduce as quickly as bacteria without the mutation. This is not always true; some of these mutations do not involve any loss of fitness. What is more, there are often secondary mutations that restore fitness.

Bacteria are easy to study. This is an advantage in evolutionary studies because we can see evolution happening in the laboratory. There is a standard experiment in which the experimenter begins with a single bacterium and lets it reproduce in a controlled environment. Since bacteria reproduce asexually all of its descendents are clones. Since reproduction is not perfect mutations happen. The experimenter can set the environment so that mutations for a particular attribute are selected. The experimenter knows both that the mutation was not present originally and, hence, when it occurred.

In the wild it is usually impossible to determine when a mutation occurred. Usually all we know (and often we do not even know that) is the current distribution of particular traits.

The situation with insects and pesticides is similar to that of bacteria and antibiotics. Pesticides are widely used to kill insects. In turn the insects quickly evolve in ways to become immune to the pesticides.
2. Bacteria that eat nylon

Well, no, they don't actually eat nylon; they eat short molecules (nylon oligomers) found in the waste waters of plants that produce nylon. They metabolize short nylon oligomers, breaking the nylon linkages with a couple of related enzymes. Since the bonds involved aren't found in natural products, the enzymes must have arisen since the time nylon was invented (around the 1940s). It would appear this happened by new mutations in that time period.

These enzymes which break down the nylon oligomers appear to have arisen by frameshift mutation from some other gene which codes for a functionally unrelated enzyme. This adaptation has been experimentally duplicated. In the experiments, non-nylon-metabolizing strains of Pseudomonas were grown in media with nylon oligomers available as the primary food source. Within a relatively small number of generations, they developed these enzyme activities. This would appear to be an example of documented occurrence of beneficial mutations in the lab.
3. Sickle cell resistance to malaria

The sickle cell allele causes the normally round blood cell to have a sickle shape. The effect of this allele depends on whether a person has one or two copies of the allele. It is generally fatal if a person has two copies. If they have one they have sickle shaped blood cells.

In general this is an undesirable mutation because the sickle cells are less efficient than normal cells. In areas where malaria is prevalent it turns out to be favorable because people with sickle shaped blood cells are less likely to get malaria from mosquitoes.

This is an example where a mutation decreases the normal efficiency of the body (its fitness in one sense) but none-the-less provides a relative advantage.
4. Lactose tolerance

Lactose intolerance in adult mammals has a clear evolutionary explanation; the onset of lactose intolerance makes it easy to wean the young. Human beings, however, have taken up the habit of eating milk products. This is not universal; it is something that originated in cultures that kept cattle and goats. In these cultures lactose tolerance had a strong selective value. In the modern world there is a strong correlation between lactose tolerance and having ancestors who lived in cultures that exploited milk as a food.

It should be understood that it was a matter of chance that the lactose tolerance mutation appeared in a group where it was advantageous. It might have been established first by genetic drift within a group which then discovered that they could use milk. [9]
5. Resistance to atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is principally a disease of the modern age, one produced by modern diets and modern life-styles. There is a community in Italy near Milan (see Appendices II and III for biological details) whose residents don't get atherosclerosis because of a fortunate mutation in one of their forebearers. This mutation is particularly interesting because the person who had the original mutation has been identified.

Note that this is a mutation that is favorable in modern times because (a) people live longer and (b) people have diets and life-styles that are not like those of our ancestors. In prehistoric times this would not have been a favorable mutation. Even today we cannot be certain that this mutation is reproductively favorable, i.e., that people with this mutation will have more than the average number of descendents. It is clear, however, that the mutation is personally advantageous to the individuals having it.
6. Immunity to HIV

HIV infects a number of cell types including T-lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells and neurons. AIDS occurs when lymphocytes, particularly CD4+ T cells are killed off, leaving the patient unable to fight off opportunistic infections. The HIV virus has to attach to molecules that are expressed on the surface of the T-cells. One of these molecules is called CD4 (or CD4 receptor); another is C-C chemokine receptor 5, known variously as CCR5, CCCKR5 and CKR5. Some people carry a mutant allele of the CCR5 gene that results in lack of expression of this protein on the surface of T-cells. Homozygous individuals are resistant to HIV infection and AIDS. The frequency of the mutant allele is quite high in some populations that have never been exposed to AIDS so it seems likely that there was prior selection for this allele. (See Appendix IV)

Answer 8

watch the Democrats in January.
this will be a mutation I do not hope for.

Answer 9

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are awesome

Answer 10

certainly, for ex. there is a family in italy that has a mutant gene that results in them having very minimal arterial plaque buildup, another ex would be sickle cell anemia which results in lower rates of malaria infection