Comment on How much of the Human Genome is Functional? by Sean Pitman.
with no broken bones
-to determine that something is a beneficial mutation one has to demostrate that that gene didn´t exist before (generations back) in the members of that family and must specify when it appeared.
The mutation is clearly unique to this particular family and has clear functionality. It’s seems obvious to me that it is a novel mutation that did not exist in the original ancestral human gene pool.
better survival in cold weather environments
-same as above, if one can study the geneaology of that people to show that it is about gaining and not about losing of that specific gene in the other populations.
Again, this mtDNA mutation is unique to these people who live in cold weather environments. It’s pretty clear that these are novel human mutations. The same is true for those who are resistant to HIV infection…
vaccination
-introduction of the microbe into the blood through rupture in the continuity of the skin by a needle, by-passing the natural defense of an organism (located at every natural orifice and skin) is a violation of the laws of immune system (read Matzinger and also J. Oller). Bacteria form our first barrier defense. Bacteria-bacteria interaction is the main principle in nature.
I’m sorry, but how are vaccinations a “violation of the laws of the immune system”? – just because they don’t present antigens through the GI tract? Isn’t that the whole point? The immune system is affected and works regardless of how bacteria or viruses for foreign antigens in general gain entrance into the body (i.e., through the skin or GI tract or respiratory tract, etc.) and generate a response from the immune system. It is for this reason that vaccinations actually work to prevent various illnesses – is it not Dr. B?
“It’s called immunity”.
-No, it is called immunization. They are not interchangeable. Long explanation.
I wasn’t trying to use the terms “interchangeably”. What I was trying to say is that “immunizations” affect the “immune system” to produce enhanced “immunity” – which seems like a truism to me. After all, isn’t it true that immunizations “educate” the immune system to recognize certain types of antigens as “foreign” and attack them in the future?
cholesterol
-the age of the great myth on cholesterol will end soon. Cholesterol on the arteries is a protective mechanism against inflammation. Artherogenesis is a side effect. Statins, agents used to lower the cholesterol are potent antiinflammatory agents… with their side effects.
How is this relevant? The point I was trying to make here is that those who have the HDL mutation (the Apolipoprotein AI-Milano mutation) do in fact have less coronary artery disease, less strokes, and less heart attacks. There’s just no getting around this observation. It’s a real beneficial mutation in humans. Sure, the effects of this mutation are based on a reduction in inflammation via enhanced antioxidant activity, but the results are the same. In most people, free radicals can go unchecked as they grab electrons from lipids that line arterial walls. But for the less than 50 people lucky enough to possess the Milano mutation (the monomeric form with its free sulfhydryl) their mutant apoA-I protein mops up the unpaired electrons from free radicals. This prevents the scavenging of electrons from arterial lipids and therefore prevents a series of reactions that lead to cholesterol deposition and atherosclerosis that follow unchecked inflammation otherwise produced by free radicals.
“Apolipoprotein A-IMilano and Apolipoprotein A-IParis exhibit an antioxidant activity distinct from that of wild-type Apolipoprotein A-I,” appears in the journal Biochemistry, 2002, 41 (6), pp. 2089-2096.
Sean Pitman Also Commented
How much of the Human Genome is Functional?
Good response.
How much of the Human Genome is Functional?
You do realize that I’m not a neo-Darwinist? The evolutionary mechanism of random genetic mutations and natural selection is limited to the lowest levels of functional complexity. It cannot produce any qualitatively novel system that requires more than 1000 specifically arranged amino acid residues this side of trillions upon trillions of years of time (Link). It’s a statistical problem due to the nature of sequence space at higher and higher levels of functional complexity…
How much of the Human Genome is Functional?
@dana:
Prions are interesting. However, prions don’t really self-replicate themselves starting with random amino acids. Usually the same amino-acid residue sequence is required to already exist in a pre-formed protein before this pre-existing protein can then acquire the 3D prion conformation. The prion simply refolds the pre-existing protein with the same or similar sequence into a new conformational shape.
This isn’t like a self-replicating organism where randomly arranged nucleic acid molecules are specifically sequenced by protein-based machinery based on a pre-existing DNA sequence template. In other words, the way prions works is not like replicating a complex mechanical machine from scratch – from a pile of fundamental building blocks.
Recent Comments by Sean Pitman
After the Flood
Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!
The Flood
Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…
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Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…
Pacific Union College Encouraging Homosexual Marriage?
Where did I “gloss over it”?
Review of “The Naked Emperor” by Pastor Conrad Vine
I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.
Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).
Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.
