The "evolution gene"?

Question

Is there an "evolution" gene that's deeply embedded in our DNA that causes us to gradually "mutate" over time? I mean is evolution set on a primordial timer, to where humanity starts "mutating" the more we have babies -- the more our "evolution" gene gets passed along through the ages? Like a domino effect.

Exactly at which point in existence, will humanity, as a whole, start "mutating"? .....Into 7-headed, crawfish? (lol)

...Joking aside, let's say I've "fathered" many babies, passing my "evolution" gene along to all of them, and they in turn have kids of their own, passing the gene swiftly along to the next batch of "generational mutants" -- At some point down the line, EVENTUALLY, who will be the "lucky" individual to display "obvious" signs of an evolutionary "advancement"? Who will be the lucky individual to display evolution's primordial handywork?

Mourning Star: Could it be that the flawed logic of the "evolution' theory is showing, and I merely simplified it for what it is?

MAA: lol yeah, I did. What so evolutionary mutant are you "evolving" into next?

^Correction, "So what"

Aaron: Impostor? No. Coincidence? Yes.

The "environment" forces the populous to "mutate" over time in order to adapt to it. Well, what if the environment remained generally "unchanged" for the next 100,000,000 years, does this mean that the evolution process would come to a screeching halt?

Answer 1

No there is inherent imprefection in the way DNA is replicated.

EDIT

Even if the environment remained absolutely stable, evolution would still occur.Evolution is optimizing but rarely reaches a pure optimal point. Also, organism are always in competition with one another so migrant species (a species that comes to a new geogrpahic region) would put selective pressures on the species that were already there.

Finally, even if the environment were prefectly stable there would be localized distrubances such as forest fires that essentially clear out an area. Such an area would slowly return to its mature state in terms of the econsystem, but along the way, the developing ecosystem would be a fertile environment for evolutionary events.

Answer 2

> Is there an "evolution" gene that's deeply embedded in our DNA that causes us to gradually "mutate" over time?

a) we haven't found one.
b) the same effect would happen if an individual had damaged genes for the processes which repair errors made during DNA replication.

Mutation appears to happen randomly, as a result of damage to DNA resulting from ionizing radiation or mutagenic chemicals.

> I mean is evolution set on a primordial timer
It does not appear to work that way.

> At some point down the line, EVENTUALLY, who will be the "lucky" individual to display "obvious" signs of an evolutionary "advancement"? Who will be the lucky individual to display evolution's primordial handywork?

Evolution does not appear to have any particular direction beyond favoring the genes of those who live to reproduce.

Answer 3

There is no evolution gene. You must have been napping during science class, or went to school in the southern US.

Evolution happens when a mutation takes place. Mutations are mistakes, and happen at random. Sometimes they are beneficial, most of the time they are not. When a mutation happens to be beneficial, the recipient of that mutation, typically is in a better position to procreate and thus multiply this mutated gene.

Unfortunately the growth of civilization has reversed this process as everyone has access to food now. Thus most humans have the ability to procreate, typically humans with an inability to think ahead have many more children than humans with better reasoning skills. Thus survival of the fittest is reversed, and in a few thousand years, the earth will be populated by morons. We can see this happening to day, but the ever increasing mobile home demographics.

Answer 4

Yep, you just don't know anything about evolution or mutation - I suggest reading a book on the subject, maybe watch some of the documentaries by Richard Dawkins on google or youtube.

Mutations are very very small. I am a good couple inches taller than anyone else in my family - that's a mutation. A friend of mine has a darker shade of hair than is typical for his family, that's another small mutation. "Mutation" isn't always as good as word as genetic variance. There is no evolution gene, but genes themselves are the instrument behind evolution. Genes are shared and not copied.

If you father kids they will not all look or be the same. Some of them will be better at running, some will be taller or shorter, vision will differ, etc. The environment selects which of your children have traits worthy of survival. Say there are a LOT of fast moving predators out there, your kid that's a fast runner will outlive your other kids, he will be the one to meet another fast runner and have babies with varying degrees of speed - those faster runners will survive to pass on their traits and over millions of years they will become quite different.

Or what if a new plant species emerges that can spray acid from a long distance (500 yards maybe?)... Barring other threats, those animals who are far sighted will be more likely to survive as they can see the threat further away. This way those with average or short vision will produce less children as they're killed more often and eventually (over time) the remainders will all be far sighted. Plus genetic variation (those who are a little taller and can see further, those with a little sharper vision, etc.) will make the new children most suited to survive as well to where, in 5 million years, that species would be very different.

Humans are evolving now in fact. Over the last couple hundred years we've grown taller and our jaws have become smaller. That has more to do with mate selection though, and not as much natural selection.

Answer 5

Actually, all genes are evolutionary. Mutations that prove to be advantageous will continue on as they reproduce.

If you're born a genius, a giant, or with incredible good looks, the odds are you'll reproduce more and these traits will be passed on.

If you're born an idiot, with some physical defect, or incredibly ugly, odds are you won't reproduce as much.

The mutations in this simple comparision would be to the same genes, but the mutations themselves would be different. It is in this way that all genes are evolutionary. As these traits are passed on, they change slightly. No one is a 'twin' to either of their parents, right?

How they change constitutes mutation. How those mutations affect one's ability to reproduce defines the success or failure of the mutation.

Need more proof? Pro basketball players have lots more kids than homeless guys. That's evolution at work.

Answer 6

That's exactly the point. There is no way to reproduce this experiment in a laboratory. Bacteria do evolve into new species. Of course, they just claim this is microevolution as well. Observable evolution of entirely new species isn't even limited to just bacteria. An entirely new species of mosquito has already evolved in London's subway system (1) It cannot even interbreed with any pre-existing species of mosquito. What the creationists want is a mammal that evolves into an entirely new species and can be demonstrated doing this in a laboratory. It only happens in the time frame of scientific observation with mosquitos and bacteria. Mammals take too long to reproduce. Of course, these claims don't really have anything to do with scientific argument. Creationism is a flat Earth theory as far as scientists are concerned. The target audience for these claims is the general public with limited knowledge about the subject, not the scientific community.

Answer 7

The way DNA is structured allows for mutation. So really, all of our genes are "evolution" genes. But there are many ways for evolution to happen, not just mutation. Genetic drift can also cause evolution. Check out this link.

Answer 8

No, mutation is a flaw in the copying of code. It occurs within every 100,000 (#?) copies. If the mutation is harmful, then it will quickly die off. If it is helpful, it will be passed along to some of the next generation and so on and so forth.

Answer 9

You need to read a biology textbook. All of our genes are mutating at the same rate as they always have.

Definition of evolution: Change in allele frequency in a population over time.

Answer 10

There is no "evolution gene". The theory of evolution is based in mutations (Minor or major) in the genetic code. If there is no mutation, then there is no evolution.