Hope that makes some sense to…Java programmers.

It does. You may be on to something.

Here’s a link to a PLoS Biology article about mice coloration. Seems like all you see is a “single” mutation. I think it’s interesting in light of Behe’s EoE. Maybe someone wants to start a thread on it.

Here’s the link.

And here’s the “Author Summary”:

“The tremendous amount of variation in color patterns among organisms helps individuals survive and reproduce in the wild, yet we know surprisingly little about the genes that produce these adaptive patterns. Here we used a genomic analysis to uncover the molecular basis of a pale color pattern that camouflages beach mice inhabiting the sandy dunes of Florida’s coast from predators. We identified two pigmentation genes, the melanocortin-1 receptor (Mc1r) and its ligand, the agouti signaling protein (Agouti), which together produce a light color pattern. We show that this light pigmentation results partly from a single amino acid mutation in Mc1r, which reduces the activity of the receptor but does not affect the gene’s expression level, and partly from the derived Agouti allele, which shows no change in protein sequence but does exhibit an increase in mRNA expression. We also show that these two genes do not act additively to produce pale color; rather, the derived Agouti allele must be present to see any effect of Mc1r on pigmentation. Thus, the light color pattern of beach mice largely results from the physical interaction between a structural change in a receptor (reducing Mc1r activity) and a regulatory change in the receptor’s antagonist (increasing Agouti expression).”

I wonder if what’s going on is not frontloading but overloading, as in Java. Maybe DNA codes methods something like Vertebrate.makeRearAppendages(seaCreature, shark). Then you could also have Vertebrate.makeRearAppendages(landCreature, cow) and so on and so forth.

Hope that makes some sense to skilled Java programmers. It’s been several years since I got to write any.

Just because today’s shark has X genetic qualities does NOT mean that earlier generations also had those same qualities.

IOW the genome of today’s shark evolved those genetic qualities over the generations.

What I think this does demonstrate is an ignorance of what genetic segments actually do.

We don’t know what makes a shark a shark other than a shark is born when two other sharks successfully mate.

IMHO this is an example of common design. That is a designer re-using the same part for different applications.

We see that in every-day designs. A resistor in a feedback loop in one circuit is used as a voltage divider in another.

To MJB2001:

Design is a mechanism.

Front end loading is one specific mechanism, as is Dr Spetner’s “built-in responses to environmental cues” (1997).

PaV, 8: If St. George Jackson Mivart were now alive, he would have a field-day.

Calling Galapagos Finch et al: Let’s channel him! (Or better yet, do an interview on the balcony of heaven!]

GEM of TKI

http://www.amazon.com/Genetic-.....1599190028

I would love to see a short book written to the lay person (me) fleshing out the points you made in your recent post.