Evolution's Most Important Molecular Inventions

Part 3 on The Plausibility of Life Most people probably think of change when they hear the word evolution, but some of evolution's most amazing molecular inventions have stuck around hundreds of millions, even billions of years. The complex protein machinery needed to express genes, metabolize energy sources, reproduce sexually, and lay out body plans has remained in place largely unchanged in spite of the tremendous variety we see in the living world. These constant core cellular processes are why biologists could crack the universal genetic code by experimenting with bacteria, and why we gain insight into cell division and cancer by studying yeast. The big question, argue the authors of The Plausibility of Life, is not how evolution keeps inventing new genes - it's how evolution can produce so much variety when the basic processes change so little. Later in the book Kirschner and Gerhart are going to argue that these basic systems have persisted so long because they are versatile, that they posses features which make them well-suited to facilitating the biological diversity we see today. We'll come to that argument later; today we'll take a closer look at the core conserved molecular systems that carry out the most basic cellular functions. Read More...

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