Quote:
Originally Posted by Shades
Because mutations have never increased the amount of genetic information available.
|
That's not really true, depending on what you mean by information.
As others have mentioned, "information" is often just an obfuscating word used so the details don't have to be examined.
The information in the DNA
is the DNA itself, there's no abstraction or arbitrary representation in DNA, so it's not truly a code. It's not a set of instructions in the way a code is a set of instructions, the DNA
is the thing that happens. Mutations which add or change the DNA itself can add or change the proteins that get expressed, and what proteins get expressed is entirely what determine what the organism is.
A mutation duplicates a gene, further mutations change that gene so it creates a new novel protein that allows the organism to metabolize a new food source that it could not before, bam new "information".
This has been done in the lab.
Shubin's book covers this to some degree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shades
There is loss of information, variation, or copies of genetic information but nothing that actually added information.
|
These can result in new proteins being produced, which will change the organism. By any meaningful definition that's added information.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shades
That's why mutations have a set limit and macro-evolution (above the species level) isn't possible.
|
It doesn't follow. Even if mutations didn't exist that introduced new DNA into the strand, it still does not follow that mutations have a set limit, since there's nothing to stop a mutation from showing up in a place and changing what's being expressed there.
How many mutations do you think you have from your parents' DNA?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
I think I understand what "duplication" is, but could you explain "insertion mutation" and "frameshift mutation"? What are these and how do they occur?
|
Ashartus covered it, but here's a link I like which explains it too:
http://www.genetichealth.com/g101_changes_in_dna.shtml