Do 'Essential Genes' debunk evolution? Evolutionary Question #26

Humans are thought to have over 2,472 "essential genes". We need these genes to survive. Well, at some time in the past, our ancestors didn't have all 2,472 of those essential genes. How then, did they survive?

The secret is to flip the question: How do non-essential genes become essential? Here Jon Perry discusses several ways in which this happens.

#Evolution #EssentialGene #JonPerry

[grantpritchard]

The ability to explain complex matters in such an pleasant and understandable way is a fantastic skill. I'm so glad that you possess it and are presenting these videos.

[SaltyInMotion]

Your videos have been a massive influence in my cult deprogramming. Thanks and keep up the great work!

[bjorsam]

This is unbelievably pedagogic, clear, pleasant and Jon Perryied! Bookmarked for future classroom use.
Explaining level: epic

[belgacem_mehdi]

8:20
The analogy of how cities are build and how profitable discoveries like electricity became essential and how genes behave in genome was so good

[nikolastankovic]

You explain everything clearly and in a way that's very understandable! I feel bad for those sponges, they are missing out on some great games this year! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[brianh]

I absolutely love your videos. I learn so much by watching them. I so wish I hadn't told my high school biology teacher, "I don't believe in evolution". I think it' something I really could have gotten into.

[martinjan]

speaking of mutations ...

a quote from a mainstream paper:

_Mutation protection paradox_
_Unbounded random change of nucleotide codes through the accumulation of irreparable, advantageous, code-expanding, inheritable mutations at the level of individual nucleotides, as proposed by evolutionary theory, requires the mutation protection at the level of the individual nucleotides and at the higher levels of the code to be switched off or at least to dysfunction[sic]. Dysfunctioning[sic] mutation protection, however, is the origin of cancer and hereditary diseases, which reduce the capacity to live and to reproduce. Our mutation protection perspective of the evolutionary dynamics of digital and nucleotide codes thus reveals the presence of a paradox in evolutionary theory between the necessity and the disadvantage of dysfunctioning[sic] mutation protection. This mutation protection paradox, which is closely related with the paradox between evolvability and mutational robustness, needs further investigation._

_(William DeJong (INI-Research, NL), Hans Degens (Institute for Biomedical Research, UK)_

[DrReginaldFinleySr]

Beautiful presentation Jon. Thank you for your efforts.

[usergiodmsilvaPT]

Mutations are sporadic... But they can't be random, in the mathematical sense, because the stress point of the DNA molecule are not the same across said molecule. This isn't biology, it's physics, and I can't believe how much time it took to start this discussion. It's not just celular survivability, it's structural. Some parts of the DNA are more resilient to mutation, than others.

[martinjan]

Thanks for this video ... I never heard of essential genes ... another nail in the theory-of-evolution coffin ... THANKS!!!

PS: as to histones ... I as an engineer, I have always wondered, why on earth would a blind natural process invent something so complex as DNA packaging ...

Seriously ... when you tightly package DNA around all these countless histones - from that moment, everything gets way way worse and way way complicated ... it is more difficult to transcribe / replicate / repair DNA and who knows what else ...

It seems that blind natural process loves to make things as complicated as it gets ...

And it gets even worse :

_Haploid male germ cells package their DNA into a volume that is typically 10% or less that of a somatic cell nucleus. To achieve this remarkable level of compaction, spermatozoa replace most of their histones with smaller, highly basic arginine and (in eutherians) cysteine rich protamines._

In other words, a regular nucleus DNA packaging is still too large in size, so it has to be even more tightly packaged to fit in sperm head ...

Why not to make bigger cell nucleus or bigger sperm head ? Why to make things as complicated as it gets (unless it has engineering/design reasons) ?


PS: and like a miracle, always the right number of histones available so the whole DNA gets packaged ... and no piece of DNA gets left behind .... like a miracle ....
How on earth could a 21st century rational and educated person believe that these things wasn't engineered ?

[leonciovergara]

Doesn’t it reflects “survivors bias” ? …. The famous picture of an aircraft diagram riddled with bullet holes used to decide where to place extra protection

[raymondregis]

Excellent! This fills in many gaps I never knew I didn't know.

[trollingisasport]

Excellent metaphors and breakdowns. Love the causality of nature.

[robertohvargas]

Estan chidos tus vídeos. Personalmente siempre me ha llamado la atencion la evolucion de la percepcion del mundo que rodea a cada organismo. Pasando por como las bacterias perciben su mundo, como una amiba percibe su mundo, como un pez percibe su mundo, la evolución de las neuronas y como surge la memoria al guardar informacion y usarla en su beneficio, como surge el concepto de "prediccion" por parte de las neuronas y de ahi como surge el concepto de imaginacion en los animales (un perro teniendo pesadillas, o corriendo cuando se asusta, un humano diseñando un motor o una equacion que describe un comportamiento). Ojala y algun dia nos deleites con un video sobre el tema.

😮
Y llendo aun mas lejos... Que tal si el concepto mismo del tiempo es una ilusion que nos mantiene presos por la manera en que nuestras neuronas "almacenan" informacion y la "interpretan". (Y surge el espejismo de que algo esta sucediendo cuando en realidad todo ya sucedió😱 y el universo es determinista y realmente no hay libre albedrio y el tiempo es igualmente valido hacia atras que hacia adelante...(también me gusta la fisica)

Has ganado un nuevo suscriptor, sigue con tu excelente trabajo. Saludos desde Mexico 👋

[shanewilson]

As always, thank you so much for this explanation because while I had a grasp of how it could develop, you went into amazing detail and said it in such a way where its easy to understand.

[buddnd]

A brilliant video as always Jon. 👍
But where is the video, that you said you were going to link about the development of the heart?

[trilobite]

Just before looking into this, I'm just going to say what I think could be a possible cause.

If an organism develops a gene that repairs more essential genes then if it's descendants have a mutation there that would normally kill them but doesn't, they'd fair better than an organism without the reinforcement.

[kinglyzard]

Very informative. Thank you so very much.
Your city analogy really framed essential gene evolution well for a genetics noob like myself.
Keep up the good work.
My brain thanks you.

[aki-figk]

Brilliant video and thanks for answering my question jon

[playsavedthechild.]

THE HEART DEVELOPMENT IS VERY INTERESTING.
Then unxerstaning the first part about essential genes make sense.