erv-faq-for-creationists.wikispaces/home About This Wiki This wiki will contain answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) from creationists about the case for common descent from endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). 1) What is case for common descent from ERVs? Here is a brief overview. Much more detail can be found here, Three Layers of Endogenous Retroviral Evidence for the Evolutionary Model. Further FAQ entries will go into into the following points in more depth. 1) Retroviruses replicate by invading the cells of host organisms, converting their RNA genomes into DNA, and inserting the DNA into the DNA of the host cell. The host cell then reads the viral DNA, resulting in the production of more viruses. 2) Retroviruses tend to target certain types of cells. Their environment proteins tend to be specialized to attach to the surfaces of these cells. 3) The insertion is made by a retroviral enzyme called integrase. While certain retroviruses can show a general tendency to insert their DNA in certain types of regions of the host genome, they do not target specific sites. 4) We find, in the genomes of creatures such as ourselves and chimpanzees, structures that appear to be broken retroviral insertions. Some are more complete than others, but many have the full set of genes that would be necessary for a complete retrovirus, were they not faulty. We call these structures endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). 5) Although certain components of some ERVs perform functions in the host, one or two even being essential in some species, design, as an explanation for ERVs does not make any sense. A designer would have no need to include specifically retroviral genes in its designs, which now do nothing, or can even cause harm. There would also be no need to design in non-functional traces of the action of integrase, traces of which are present in ERVs. 6) The only explanation that makes any sense is that ERVs are the result of retroviral insertions into germ-line DNA - egg, sperm or zygote cells, followed by cell division. Cell division will duplicate the ERVs in the same positions in the DNA of every cell. Separate, parallel infection would not infect every cell, and the ERVs would end up in different locations, comparing one infected cell with another. 7) All human beings have some 200,000+ ERV and ERV fragments in the DNA of every one of their cells. Most of them are in identical locations going from person to person. This means that we all share common ancestors - the ancestors that first acquired each of the the germ-line retroviral infections. 8) All human beings and chimpanzees have some 200,000+ ERV and ERV fragments in the DNA of every one of their cells. Most of them are in precisely corresponding locations going from individual to individual. This means that we all share common ancestors - the ancestors that first acquired each of the the germ-line retroviral infections.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 09:55:40 +0000
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