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

Guliuzza and Gaskill ◀ How organisms continuously track environmental changes ▶ 2018 ICC 180 Table 2 continued. Table 2 continued on next page. Mechanism Action Reference Research Entity Results Descriptive Extract of Function in CET Framework 13. RNAi - Regulated Epigenetic RNA inheritance An active, tunable process to regulate the duration of epigenetically-con- trolled phenotypes in subsequent generations which comprises detec- tion of specific conditions and modulation of the persistance or termination of epi- genetic effects. Houri-Ze’evi et al. 2016. A Tunable Mechanism Deter- mines the Duration of the Transgener- ational Small RNA Inheritance in C. elegans. Cell Caenorhabditis ele- gans nematodes Exposure to dsRNA activates a feedback loop whereby gene- specific RNAi responses dictate the transgenerational duration of RNAi elicited separately in previous generations. The effect was observed to last up to 14 generations. “Perhaps, similarly to worms, organisms with longer generation times can regulate the duration of heritable effects, using homologous 'transgenerational timer' mechanisms...long-term transmission of epigenetic responses could be adaptive also in 'higher' organisms, for which the parental environment is often very different from that of the progeny. Adaptive control over the duration of environmental responses could affect the process of evolution" p. 97. 14. Regulated Short- lived Enzymatic Clusters RNA polymerase II (Pol II) gathers for a few, but variably regulated, seconds in clusters on genes primed for transcription just prior to mRNA’s appearance, then scatters apart. Cluster duration assists in regulat- ing the quantity of mRNA product. Cho, et al. 2016. RNA Polymerase II cluster dynamics predict mRNA out- put in living cells. eLife RNA polymerase II Manipulated enzyme clusters that stayed together for longer periods of time produced correspondingly more molecules of mRNA. Clusters of Pol II likely play a central role in triggering mRNA production and controlling gene transcription. "We think these weak and transient clusters are a fundamental way for the cell to control gene expression. If a small mutation changes the cluster’s lifetime ever so slightly, that can also change the gene expression in a major way. It seems to be a very sensitive knob that the cell can tune...to express a gene in response to some environmental stimuli." [MIT news on May 25, 2016] 15. Innate Heterozy- gosity Heterozygous al- lelic variation with random additive genetic variance predominantly by SNPs. Van Heerwaarden and Sgro. 2014. Is adaptation to climate change re- ally constrained in niche specialists? Proceedings of the Royal Society B Australian tropical fly, Drosophila birchii In five generations, one species survived 23 per cent longer in only 35 per cent humidity due to innate genetic variation Effectively track slow and steady environmental changes where "the expression of additive genetic variance for ecologically important traits will depend on the severity of the stress experienced.”