Lukraak_Sisser
Philosopher
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2009
- Messages
- 6,013
Hi all,
I've been reading these forums for a while now and decided to make a post to get a question I've been wondering about some time anwsered
I couldn't find any real reference to it using the search engine, but if it has been brought up before I'm sure someone will inform me.
I'm afraid there will have to be some exposition in the post, as it involves some details of molecular biology and I hope I can explain them enough in laymans terms to enable people to anwser.
The question involves mitochondria
These are the parts in eukaryotic (non bacterial) cells that enable them to create enough energy to survive. Mitochondria are essential in all multicellular life, without them life as we know it would not be possible.
I would like to know how the theory of Intelligent Design explains the various charactaristics of these essential cellular parts.
According to the theory of evolution they originated from a symbiosis of a bacterium and a proto eukaryotic cell, with the bacterium gradually losing the ability to exist outside of the eukaryote, devolving into its current state.
Specifically I would like to know the ID theory regarding the:
Mitochondrial genome: Mitochondria have their own, very small, genome which carries the genetic information for a number of essential proteins involved in their function. This genome and these proteins does not resemble the main genome of eukaryotic cells at all. The coding sequence is very different and in fact closely resembles the way bacteria organize their genome. Also, having this mitochondrial genome is very inefficient, as it requires all sorts of essential materials to be imported into the mitochondrion for assembly into proteins, which can in theory easily be carried out by the machinery already present in the cell, the way proteins are imported into every other cell compartment.
Evolutionary theory suggests that this is due to the fact that these are the core proteins needed for mitochondrial function and the pre-mitochondrial bacterium lost the rest of its genetic information as unneeded over time.
Mitchondrial ribosomes: The ribosomes are the factories cells use to make proteins. A mitochondium makes its own ribosomes, which are very different for the ribosomes in the rest of the cell, both in structure and formation. In fact they are nearly identical to bacterial ribosomes in the way they are created and their sequence and structure. Using the ribosomes present in the cell already to make every other protein would be a far more efficient way of function, but even if for some currently unknown reason it is essential that a mitochondria makes its proteins internally rather than import them, why would these ribosomes need to be different?
Again evolutionary theory suggests that they are the original ribosomes from the parental bacterial strain and evolving some mechanism to replace them with the host ribosomes is both an unlikely and unadventageous event.
Mitochondrial replication: As mentioned mitochondria are essential for multicellular organisms (like us) to survive at all. However if for some reason during cell division one of the new cells does not have a mitochondrium, the cell does not have the required information and components to syntesize a new one from scratch, unlike every other cell compartment. The only way to get more mitochondria is to split off part of an old one and transport it to a new cell. Again, according to the current evolutionary model this is a remnant of the fact that mitochondria descended from a bacterial ancestor that divided on its own, regardless of what its host cell did, and all the host does is try to distribute them evenly after every division. I would like to know the ID theory on why mitochondia were designed with such a massive flaw, as it is not an impossible situation that cells lose them after division and then have no choice but to die, rather then make a new one.
Lukraak Sisser
I've been reading these forums for a while now and decided to make a post to get a question I've been wondering about some time anwsered
I couldn't find any real reference to it using the search engine, but if it has been brought up before I'm sure someone will inform me.
I'm afraid there will have to be some exposition in the post, as it involves some details of molecular biology and I hope I can explain them enough in laymans terms to enable people to anwser.
The question involves mitochondria
These are the parts in eukaryotic (non bacterial) cells that enable them to create enough energy to survive. Mitochondria are essential in all multicellular life, without them life as we know it would not be possible.
I would like to know how the theory of Intelligent Design explains the various charactaristics of these essential cellular parts.
According to the theory of evolution they originated from a symbiosis of a bacterium and a proto eukaryotic cell, with the bacterium gradually losing the ability to exist outside of the eukaryote, devolving into its current state.
Specifically I would like to know the ID theory regarding the:
Mitochondrial genome: Mitochondria have their own, very small, genome which carries the genetic information for a number of essential proteins involved in their function. This genome and these proteins does not resemble the main genome of eukaryotic cells at all. The coding sequence is very different and in fact closely resembles the way bacteria organize their genome. Also, having this mitochondrial genome is very inefficient, as it requires all sorts of essential materials to be imported into the mitochondrion for assembly into proteins, which can in theory easily be carried out by the machinery already present in the cell, the way proteins are imported into every other cell compartment.
Evolutionary theory suggests that this is due to the fact that these are the core proteins needed for mitochondrial function and the pre-mitochondrial bacterium lost the rest of its genetic information as unneeded over time.
Mitchondrial ribosomes: The ribosomes are the factories cells use to make proteins. A mitochondium makes its own ribosomes, which are very different for the ribosomes in the rest of the cell, both in structure and formation. In fact they are nearly identical to bacterial ribosomes in the way they are created and their sequence and structure. Using the ribosomes present in the cell already to make every other protein would be a far more efficient way of function, but even if for some currently unknown reason it is essential that a mitochondria makes its proteins internally rather than import them, why would these ribosomes need to be different?
Again evolutionary theory suggests that they are the original ribosomes from the parental bacterial strain and evolving some mechanism to replace them with the host ribosomes is both an unlikely and unadventageous event.
Mitochondrial replication: As mentioned mitochondria are essential for multicellular organisms (like us) to survive at all. However if for some reason during cell division one of the new cells does not have a mitochondrium, the cell does not have the required information and components to syntesize a new one from scratch, unlike every other cell compartment. The only way to get more mitochondria is to split off part of an old one and transport it to a new cell. Again, according to the current evolutionary model this is a remnant of the fact that mitochondria descended from a bacterial ancestor that divided on its own, regardless of what its host cell did, and all the host does is try to distribute them evenly after every division. I would like to know the ID theory on why mitochondia were designed with such a massive flaw, as it is not an impossible situation that cells lose them after division and then have no choice but to die, rather then make a new one.
Lukraak Sisser
