In the last entry, I raised a puzzle. Why is it that Tetrahymena cells survive and reproduce when a fresh culture contains at least 1000 cells/ml, but die when the culture only contains 100 cells/ml?

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Setting up a culture of cells is a relatively simple task. All you need is some media, which would be a solution that contains all the ingredients needed for cell growth, and some cells, obtained from another previous culture. Put simply, you fill a container with media and add a small amount of cells. These cells then do what cells do – they divide and form a large population of cells over time. In other words, the machinery within the cells converts the simple biomolecules in the media into new cells.

But now I have a puzzle for you.

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We have seen that Hydra possesses an insulin-receptor and that insulin obtained from cows has the ability to induce a cellular response in this simple animal. We have also seen that bovine insulin likewise can influence the development of plants.

This all suggests that the last common ancestor of both plants and animals could have responded to mammalian insulin. Yet front-loading would lead us to predict that the same theme would hold true among single-celled protozoa.

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As readers know, The Design Matrix is neither anti-science nor anti-evolution. What is does represent is a challenge to the non-teleological perspective of biology and evolution. And it is not a challenge in the sense that I try to refute the non-teleological perspective, but that it lays out a positive, potentially fruitful teleological perspective of biology and evolution that embraces random variation and natural selection. What this portends is that a non-teleological perspective is not needed.

Chapter 6 (Ducks and Rabbits) plays a pivotal role in this story and recent research continues to emphasize that theme.

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Recent research concerning tyrosine kinases continues to strengthen the case for front-loading evolution:

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We have previously seen that insulin obtained from cows has the ability to induce cellular changes in Hydra. This led someone to ask me whether Hydra itself produces insulin. While it is assumed that Hydra must produce some insulin-like molecule to react with its insulin-like receptor, no evidence for such an intrinsic ligand has yet to be discovered.

That bovine insulin can activate a cnidarian RTK is intriguing enough, as it opens up some doors from the perspective of front-loading evolution, but what if we traveled further back in time? Could mammalian insulin have an analogous effect on something that is not an animal?

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Hydra vulgaris is a member of the phylum Cnidaria. It appears to be a relatively simple animal and has a small number of cell types (you can read more about its basic biology here). Yet, as we have seen, it turns out that cnidarians actually possess a rather complex genetic tool kit.

We have also seen that receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) would play important roles in facilitating the evolution of multicellular life. Added to this is the recent discovery that one example of an RTK, the insulin receptor, plays an important role, along with its ligand insulin, in the development of the nervous system.

So let’s begin the process of tying this together.

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For future blog entries, I have now added more tags that will help the reader see how individual blog entries fit The Design Matrix and thus build on the book. The tags are as follows:

Analogy
Discontinuity
Rationality
Foresight
Front-loading
Perception and Evidence

In essence, you’ll be able to see how new information adds to the strength of the various arguments.