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n page 179 of Darwin's Black Box Michael Behe claims:
"There has never been a meeting, or a book, or a paper on details of the evolution of complex biochemical systems."
He closes the chapter with this ludicrous statement:
"In effect, the theory of Darwinian molecular evolution has not published, and so it should perish"
(Did someone say publish or perish?: The Elusive Scientific Basis of Intelligent Design Theory)
To be honest, I suspect that the extent of detail Behe is demanding would require a combination cutting-edge biochemistry lab and a time machine. How else can science fully recover, for example, every single step in the evolution of the bacterial flagellum that took place billions of years ago?
In any case the claim itself is false since papers do in fact exist that attempt to flesh out the details of the evolution of various biochemical systems and structures. Many such citations are included below.
But that is only part of the story. There are thousands of additional published papers containing solid and detailed evidence of biochemical evolution:
Most of the citations and abstracts below were found using the PubMed MEDLINE search engine and microbiology database. A simple search reveals that there are over 13,000 articles that contain "evolution" as a major subject keyword - hardly the dead silence that Behe proclaims. Granted many of these do not directly address the problem of adaptive complexity in biochemical systems, but many of them do.
Note that I have excluded papers that discuss sequence comparisons being used solely to determine lines of descent. Michael Behe already admits that common descent is reasonable.
Keep in mind this is only a small sampling of citations collected from my own searches, and from the suggestion of others (thanks for those suggestions!)
Last but not least. Please help me find more citations and continue to grow this page - especially if you have a background in biochemistry or microbiology. Thank you.
Here are a number of articles from a quick search of the
Journal of Biological Chemistry using the word "evolution"
at http://www.jbc.org/ --
Andrew P. Spicer and John A. McDonald
Characterization and Molecular Evolution of a
Vertebrate Hyaluronan Synthase Gene Family J.
Biol. Chem. 1998 273: 1923-1932.
Catherine TomHon, Wei Zhu, David Millinoff, Kenji Hayasaka,
Jerry L. Slightom, Morris Goodman, and Deborah L. Gumucio
Evolution of a Fetal Expression Pattern via cis
Changes near the Globin Gene J. Biol. Chem. 1997
272: 14062-14066.
Chien-Chia Wang, Andrey Pavlov, and Jim D. Karam
Evolution of RNA-binding Specificity in T4 DNA
Polymerase J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272:
17703-17710.
David R. Gang, Hiroyuki Kasahara, Zhi-Qiang Xia, Kristine
Vander Mijnsbrugge, Guy Bauw, Wout Boerjan, Marc Van
Montagu, Laurence B.Davin, and Norman G. Lewis Evolution of
Plant Defense Mechanisms. RELATIONSHIPS OF
PHENYLCOUMARAN BENZYLIC ETHER REDUCTASES TO
PINORESINOL-LARICIRESINOL AND ISOFLAVONE
REDUCTASES J. Biol. Chem. 1999 274:
7516-7527.
Elizabeth A. Bucher, Gurtej K. Dhoot, Mark M. Emerson,
Margaret Ober, and Charles P. Emerson, Jr. Structure and
Evolution of the Alternatively Spliced Fast
Troponin T Isoform Gene J. Biol. Chem. 1999 274:
17661-17670.
Florence Magrangeas, Gilles Pitiot, Sigrid Dubois,
Elisabeth Bragado-Nilsson, Michel ChŽrel, SŽverin
Jobert, Benoit Lebeau, Olivier Boisteau, Bernard
LethŽ, Jacques Mallet, Yannick Jacques, and
StŽphane Minvielle Cotranscription and
Intergenic Splicing of Human Galactose-1-phosphate
Uridylyltransferase and Interleukin-11 Receptor -Chain
Genes Generate a Fusion mRNA in Normal Cells. IMPLICATION
FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MULTIDOMAIN PROTEINS DURING
EVOLUTION J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:
16005-16010.
James E. Hagstrom, Michael P. Fautsch, Monique Perdok, Anne
Vrabel, and Eric D. Wieben Exons Lost and Found.
UNUSUAL EVOLUTION OF A SEMINAL VESICLE TRANSGLUTAMINASE
SUBSTRATE J. Biol. Chem. 1996271: 21114-21119.
[
Juan Ausi— Histone H1 and Evolution of Sperm
Nuclear Basic Proteins J. Biol. Chem. 1999 274:
31115-31118.
M. Neale Weitzmann, Kerry J. Woodford, and Karen Usdin
DNA Secondary Structures and the Evolution of
Hypervariable Tandem Arrays J. Biol. Chem. 1997
272: 9517-9523.
Marieta Costache, Pol-AndrŽ Apoil, Anne Cailleau,
Anders Elmgren, Gšran Larson, Stephen Henry, Antoine
Blancher, Dana Iordachescu, Rafael Oriol, and Rosella
Mollicone Evolution of Fucosyltransferase Genes in
Vertebrates J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272:
29721-29728.
Medeiros, Edward G. Rowan, Alan L. Harvey, and AndrŽ
MŽnez On the Convergent Evolution of Animal
Toxins. CONSERVATION OF A DIAD OF FUNCTIONAL RESIDUES IN
POTASSIUM CHANNEL-BLOCKING TOXINS WITH UNRELATED
STRUCTURES J. Biol. Chem. 1997 272:
4302-4309.
Ronald E. van Kesteren, Cornelis P. Tensen, August B. Smit,
Jan van Minnen, Lee. F. Kolakowski, Jr., Wolfgang Meyerhof,
Dietmar Richter, Harm van Heerikhuizen, Erno Vreugdenhil,
and Wijnand P. M. Geraerts Co-evolution of
Ligand-Receptor Pairs in the Vasopressin/Oxytocin
Superfamily of Bioactive Peptides J. Biol. Chem.
1996 271: 3619-3626.
Sandra K. Parker and H. William Detrich III
Evolution, Organization, and Expression of -Tubulin
Genes in the Antarctic Fish Notothenia coriiceps. ADAPTIVE
EXPANSION OF A GENE FAMILY BY RECENT GENE DUPLICATION,
INVERSION, AND DIVERGENCE J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:
34358-34369.
Stefanie Brumme, Volker Kruft, Udo K. Schmitz, and
Hans-Peter Braun New Insights into the Co-evolution
of Cytochrome c Reductase and the Mitochondrial Processing
Peptidase J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273:
13143-13149.
Stephan M. MŸhlebach, Thomas Wirz, Urs BrŠndle,
and Jean-Claude Perriard Evolution of the Creatine
Kinases J. Biol. Chem. 1996 271:
11920-11929.
Zhe Lu, Elisa Cabiscol, Nuria Obradors, Jordi Tamarit,
Joaquim Ros, Juan Aguilar, and E. C. C. Lin
Evolution of an Escherichia coli Protein with
Increased Resistance to Oxidative Stress J. Biol.
Chem. 1998 273: 8308-8316.
(major MeSH 1998 Jan-May)
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