Friday, December 5, 2008

Day 327 and one more week until I get a break from college!

Just one more week until I get a break from my college classes for a few weeks. I cannot wait! Of course that means I have a lot to get done in the next few days in order to be done by Friday night of next week. But I've made a good start and I think I'll have it done in time, if not early. The main thing I'm worried about is the questions I have to answer for my ecology and evolution class. Just to give you an idea of what I'm up against, here is one of the questions:

Consider the following observed facts:

* Humans possess all the genes necessary for Vitamin A synthesis except one. All the other genes are capable of producing functional enzymes, and the missing gene is present as a pseudogene.
* The antifreeze glycoprotein (AFGP) is produced by notothenoid fishes that live in the frigid waters off the coast of Antarctica. The amino acid sequence of AFGP is very similar to that of the proteolytic enzyme Trypsinogen, except for these exceptions:

(1) Trypsinogen contains a single grouping of three amino acids, Threonine-Alanine-Alanine, at the beginning of the domain coded for by Exon 2 of its gene. AFGP contains a series of 87 copies of the Threonine-Alanine-Alanine grouping. (This amino acid triplet is responsible for the anti-freeze characteristic of the protein.)

(2) The AFGP lacks Exons 3-5 that are found in the Trypsinogen gene.

(3) One species of the notothenoid family produces an AFGP that contains part of the exon 3-5 grouping that is found in Trypsinogen but not in the AFGP found in other members of the family.

How would these two sets of observations be explained under the Evolution and Intelligent Design theories? Which would predict that these facts would be observed? Explain your answer.


I read that and I just think "HUH?" LOL! Anyway, hope you all have a nice weekend! "See" you tomorrow!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG, WHAT???????

KiddoKare1 said...

EXACTLY! LOL!

Mom Thumb said...

Jessica (who generally has a 4.0 GPA) has been having trouble with her biology class all semester, because of questions like this. At one point, she was failing the class. Now she's almost to an A. So, what I know about the two of you is that you are both very smart and very stubborn, and I have no doubt you are going to figure out the answer to this (ridiculous, who cares) question!

Anonymous said...

and why do they think this class will help you in everyday life or any job field that isnt teaching biology? lol

KiddoKare1 said...

Linda, I'm glad Jess has managed to turn her grade around in Biology! And thanks for the compliment. It made me smile!

Mandy, I'm sure there's a point in my life I'll need to know this. LOL. Next time I'm doing some DNA sequencing or something maybe.