LinkBack URL
About LinkBacksHow do we tell the difference? Evolutionary adaptation requires death, but somatic adaptation doesn't eliminate it? So how does a biologist go about differentiating between natural selection and say the lac operon?
April 16th, 2009, 10:11 PM
How do we tell the difference? Evolutionary adaptation requires death, but somatic adaptation doesn't eliminate it? So how does a biologist go about differentiating between natural selection and say the lac operon?
wouldn't somatic adaptation just be one of the many tools that work for evolution
How can it? If there is no impact on the germ cells then there is no impact on future generations. Or are you implying the ability of the individual to adapt effects its ability to reproduce? But since that adaptability is genetically determined, I don't see what it has to do with anything. Or am I totally missing your point?Originally Posted by dickies994
Well I was thinking of somatic adaptation as a result of evolution, like learning or the lac operon, but it is not evolution itself.
The lac operon is a programmed response to certain environmental conditions; it's called a reaction norm, or phenotypic plasticity. The system evolved to be flexible to a certain degree within the organism's lifetime. I don't think calling it "adaptation" is correct; at the very least, it's confusing.
The only somatic adaptation I know is cancer.
That and hypermutation in the adaptive immune responses of mammals and birds.
There's a pattern called the Baldwin Effect. Familiarity with it may clarify the matter.
| « Design your baby ! | Therapsids » |
| Bookmarks |
Bookmarks |
