The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

to, 3) modified traits and then, 4) to the specific environmental conditions to which they relate. METHOD We reviewed 342 articles from the scientific literature and 67 online reports (not duplicating the journal articles) from four topic areas pertaining to our hypothesis: 1) mechanisms conferring adaptability in varied taxa, 2) bioengineering, systems analysis, human-engineered tracking systems, robust control networks, robotics, and logical algorithms, 3) papers urging a greater integration of engineering analysis into biology, and 4) papers calling for modification of the current framework. The main body of data relating to the validity of our hypothesis deals with the varied mechanisms of adaptation. The body of this report describes 23 examples that are a select subset most representative of different types and mechanisms for adaptation. Table 2 (found at the end of the paper) lists 22 different highly regulated, non-random mechanisms that would not be classified as environmentally fractionated heterozygosity, but instead confer phenotypic diversity through other means to enable (usually) rapid adaptation to new environments. The Reference section and Table 2 identify many of the major source materials, but not all those reviewed. Findings were analyzed for correspondence of mechanisms utilized in living organisms to elements of human-engineered tracking systems. Results were also investigated to answer specific questions about adaptive mechanisms: Do published results identify a predominant mechanism for adaptation utilized by organisms? Is modification of genetic sequence the principle mechanism to express phenotypic changes? Could variations be categorized, irrespective of genetic or epigenetic causality, in discernable patterns that would give clues that organisms were tracking environmental changes? The final area investigated involved cataloging mechanisms of adaptation that could potentially lead to speciation or other diversification events. RESULTS A remarkable number of non-random mechanisms specifically directing variable, adaptive responses to changes in distinct environmental conditions were reported. Several of the following examples thoroughly describe the chain from exposure to a changed condition to a phenotypic response by identifying sensors, logic mechanisms, and an output. These were analogous to the elements of human-engineered tracking systems. The significance of these results as evidence for the CET framework is withheld until the Discussion section. By way of overview, results can be grouped into systems-based adaptive mechanisms and phenotypic responses. Non-random phenotypic output responses could be traced to both genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Responses encompass modifications to physiological systems involved in maintaining cellular and organismal homeostasis. External modifications ranging from color variation to the total non-development of organs, major morphotypic reformations, and alterations in behavior. Some responses happened in a single organism within minutes, while others were found to affect entire populations and persist for several generations. Other novel responses did not result directly from either genetic or epigenetic changes but were the consequence of internal processes initiated upon detection of changed conditions. Of particular note was the identification of certain mechanisms and phenotypic responses which are both predictable and reversible. We further subcategorize variations as developmental responses (both embryonic and juvenile)—these are the primary drivers of morphology—and adult responses, which directly influence the distribution of traits in diverse niches. 1. Developmental Response to Environmental Parameters A. Embryonic development The development of blind cave fish, Astyanax mexicanas , from a population of sighted river fish is the subject of active research. A critical question was how a river fish finding itself suddenly trapped in a cave environment would respond. Rohner et al (2013) investigated the activity of a common stress-related chaperone protein HSP 90 [heat shock protein 90] which has wide-ranging activity in cells, including a molecular mechanism for buffering latent, adaptable genetic variation (if present in the genome) and expressing it in response to differing environmental conditions. The target environmental condition was cave water abiotic factors (but not the presence of light.) Caves have other distinguishing conditions besides darkness. The ability of water to conduct electricity may show up to a five-fold decrease in cave water compared to surface streams. The authors presupposed that A. mexicanas , would respond (by an undescribed mechanism) to fluctuations in water conductivity. They showed that fish embryos which develop in low conductivity up-regulate HSP 90 response genes, which enabled expression of innate variability in eye size ranging from slightly decreased to absent within the first generation. River fish placed in low conductivity during larval development displayed a 50% increase in eye and orbit size variation. Additional tests showed that de novo mutations did not cause these genetic variations for small eye size, and after being “unmasked” they seemed to remain expressed in offspring. For various reptiles including some lizards, snakes, turtles, and alligators, a single clutch of eggs may all converge on the same sex (Sifuentes-Romero 2017). Their sex is not determined by heteromorphic chromosomes, but by a developmental program using data they collect about their incubating temperature during a temperature-sensitive period. All females develop at one temperature, all males at another, and a ratio of both sexes at temperatures in between (ratios are further modulated by added data on sand moisture content.) This data is used to regulate different ratios of gene products for sex-affecting hormones. The process is triggered by temperature sensors in eggs discovered by Yatsu et al. (2015) in “…the first experimental demonstration of a link between a well-described thermo-sensory mechanism, TRPV4 channel, and its potential role in regulation of TSD [temperature- dependent sex determination] in vertebrates, shedding unique new light on the elusive TSD molecular mechanism” (p. 1). B. Juvenile development Phenotypic plasticity refers to the expression of different combinations of traits from a single genotype as an organism responds to different environmental conditions. Plasticity is a broader description for a graded response that usually correlates to the quantity of exposure to certain conditions. The nature of Guliuzza and Gaskill ◀ How organisms continuously track environmental changes ▶ 2018 ICC 162