To front-load evolution is to design the future through the present. But what does that mean? A designer may design certain cells in the present. Okay. But what of the future? Is it simply about envisioning the way these cells may evolve and designing them accordingly? Or might it go deeper than that? Might the design of cells involve the design of future ecosystems? That is, given that organisms are dependent on their ecosystems, and ecosystems can be viewed as a type of phenotype for the sum of all interacting organisms, front-loading may entail a means of directing how future ecosystems may unfold. But is that plausible?

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Here

Acetyl-CoenzymeA (acetyl-CoA) is a central compound of metabolism and an essential building block for the synthesis of fatty acids and amino acids. When cells are growing on glucose, the glucose is broken down to pyruvate, which in turn is converted into acetyl-CoA (by pyruvate dehydrogenase) that is then fed into the Kreb’s cycle within mitochondria. An alternative mechanism of generating acetyl-CoA is to use the enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase, an enzyme that attaches coenzyme A to acetate with the expenditure of ATP.

Yeast have two versions of enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase, where the 600 amino-acid length proteins share about 60% sequence identity and catalyze the same basic reaction.
One version is called Acs1p and when scientists knocked out this gene, nothing much happens. But when the other version, known as Asc2p is knocked out, yeast shut down about 70% of their genes and then die. What’s going on?
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Flexibility of the motor proteins

DNA replication initiators are universal

Bacterial stalks work like antennae to deliver nutrients

The genome from the smallest, free-living eukaryote is sequenced

The nucleosome “code” is cracked

Designing protein evolution

A nice movie about microtubules (takes some time to download)

It will be fun to discuss something like this from within The Design Matrix:

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Ken Miller was asked a question about the origin of life and whether a scenario that is built around self-organization looks like design. Miller replied that it does.

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Over at Telic Thoughts, Bilbo asks the following question:

can we expect to find some concrete proposals for research for FLE, or any other ID hypothesis, in the book?

FLE stands for front-loading evolution, the hypothesis that the first cells were designed to exploit and channel evolution.

The Design Matrix: A Consilience of Clues is intended to be the first part of a three volume set. In this first volume, I outline a novel way of approaching Intelligent Design and Evolution, including a means to assess a design inference that would intersect with research possibilities. This particular book is not “about” front-loading evolution, but does contain a fairly detailed analysis that outlines the logic of FLE and how it is connected to ID. The subsequent volumes will attempt to outline a detailed hypothesis about the past that involves Intelligent Design and Front-Loading. Whether they churn out “concrete” proposals for research remains to be seen.

If anyone else has questions about the book, feel free to post them.