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COINCIDENTAL. "Designing proteins de novo provides an opportunity to separate the crucial from the coincidental."​ https://lnkd.in/dn78N-j View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR VESTIGES. "The sequences and structures of natural proteins are the results of eons of evolutionary selection. Some features of these proteins are crucial for their functions, while others are merely ‘evolutionary baggage’ that came along for the ride."​ https://lnkd.in/dn78N-j View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR ADAPTATION. "Some of the key features of the bioenergetic redox enzymes can thus be understood from an evolutionary viewpoint, where enzymes that were already optimised for productive energy conversion in an anaerobic or low O2 environment had to compromise efficiency in order to survive the arrival of O2."​ https://lnkd.in/dxpcWx8 View in LinkedIn

STRESS OF CHANGE. "Continual mutation also means that if you don’t use it, you lose it. For instance, many primates cannot make vitamin C, because of a gene mutation. This mutation makes no difference to animals that get plenty of vitamin C in their diet. However, when the environment changes, such loss of function can make a big difference, as one primate discovered on long sea voyages."​ https://lnkd.in/dv-JiV6 View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT PROTEINS. "The energy-converting enzymes evolved from ancestral enzymes that functioned in conditions of low O2 concentration or anaerobicity. These ancestral proteins did not have to deal with the inevitable side-reactions (leaks) that occur when O2 is present."​ https://lnkd.in/dxpcWx8 View in LinkedIn

MALADAPTATIONS. "Many groups simply never evolve features that might have made them even more successful. Sharks lack the gas bladder that allows bony fish to control their buoyancy precisely, for example, and instead have to rely on swimming, buoyant fatty livers and, occasionally, a gulp of air. Similarly, mammals’ two-way lungs are far less efficient than birds’ one-way lungs. And sometimes creatures evolve features that actually reduce their overall fitness rather than increase it, such as the peacock’s tail."​ https://lnkd.in/dv-JiV6 View in LinkedIn

EARLY OXIDATIVE STRESS. "The sudden appearance of O2 would have led to significant oxidative stress due to incompatibilities with core cellular biochemical processes. These early oxygenic organisms likely adapted to the oxidative stress by co-opting preexisting systems (exaptation) with fortuitous antioxidant properties."​ https://lnkd.in/d9Uw3mh View in LinkedIn

ON BLIND FISH AND PYTHONS. "We call this useless anatomical baggage “vestigial.” Every species has some of it. Flightless birds have non-functional wings. Blind fish living in dark caves have eyes that can’t see. Most pythons have atrophied useless pelvises floating inside their abdomens, not connected to anything."​ https://lnkd.in/d8JdtZG View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this contemplation on the theme of biological individuality. From the rugged individualism and clear speciation of Darwin, we find the biological world view suggesting that creatures are spectral mosaics of interdependent and co-evolving species and that the whole ecosystem may be inherited through generations. A profound sea-change in thinking. View in LinkedIn

NO LACK. "Mammals provide a plethora of examples of vestigial structures."​ https://lnkd.in/eMd4h72 View in LinkedIn