Posted on 01/09/2009 1:59:00 PM PST by GodGunsGuts
Virus Motors Impossible for Evolution
by Brian Thomas, M.S.*
Bacteriophages are non-living yet specialized viruses that hijack cells to clone more viruses. In this way, they help to maintain balanced bacterial populations. When a new “phage” is assembled within a host cell, it is faced with a difficulty—how to package its DNA, which is 1,000 times longer than the diameter of its capsid, the tiny vessel that holds it. Research in 2007 revealed that this is accomplished by a molecular motor.1
The amount of force this motor exerts is 6 x 10-11 Newtons, making it the most powerful of all known molecular motors and twice as powerful as a car engine, relative to its size. It guzzles fuel at the rate of 300 ATP (adenosine triphosphate) energy molecules per second.2 (Since it essentially steals all this ATP from its host, efficiency is not an issue.)
The bacteriophage motor also has gears, a handy feature when DNA needs to be unraveled before packaging. Douglas Smith of the University of California in San Diego said in 2007, “It is the equivalent of reeling in and packing 100 yards of fishing line into a coffee cup, but the virus is able to package its DNA in under five minutes.”3
The December 26, 2008, edition of the journal Cell reported on the nuts and bolts of the viral DNA packaging motor.4 It consists of five proteins in a ring that wraps around the DNA strand. Each protein takes its turn, running counterclockwise, to shove two DNA bases at a time into its capsid. Each of the five proteins goes through a sequence of events: binding ATP (enabled by the exact placement of a specific amino acid, arginine), binding the DNA, cranking the DNA upward, then releasing and resetting.
A famous twentieth-century evolutionist, J. B. S. Haldane, once said in a debate that evolution could not possibly form “various mechanisms, such as the wheel and magnet, which would be useless till fairly perfect.”5 In the 60 years since this statement was made, biological magnets, wheels, and motors—including the viral DNA packing motor—have been described in considerable detail. Since none of these finely-tuned biological features could have been invented by any natural means, they must have come from a supernatural One.
References
1. Fuller, D. N. et al. 2007. Single phage T4 DNA packaging motors exhibit large force generation, high velocity, and dynamic variability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (43): 16868-16873.
2. Sarfati, J. 2008. By Design. Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 143.
3. Seethaler, S. Powerful Molecular Motor Permits Speedy Assembly of Viruses. University of California, San Diego press release, October 29, 2007.
4. Sun, S. et al. 2008. The Structure of the Phage T4 DNA Packaging Motor Suggests a Mechanism Dependent on Electrostatic Forces. Cell. 135 (7): 1251-1262.
5. Dewar, D. 1949. Is Evolution a Myth? A Debate between D. Dewar and L. M. Davies vs. J. B. S. Haldane. London: Watts & Co. Ltd, 90. Quoted in Sarfati, By Design, 86.
Ping!
Each example is apples to oranges.
God Bless bacteriophages and all the disease they wreak.
Will you ever tire of posting this crap?
Creationists said the same thing about the bacterial flagellum motor. It took biologists about 5 seconds to prove them wrong.
This is a great creationist quote: “Since none of these finely-tuned biological features could have been invented by any natural means, they must have come from a supernatural One.”
Whether true or not, that sentence reeks a of 4th grade intellect.
==Will you ever tire of posting this crap?
Crap? Read it again. It covers one item on the increasingly growing list of evidences that demonstrate Darwin’s fanciful creation myth is scientifically impossible.
The logic of this paragraph would get any freshman science student politely ushered back to philosophy or one of those other squishy subjects where critical thinking is not required. Or perhaps burger flipping.
Its hard to believe that folks are trying to sell this as meaningful, and then you see it is coming from creation "science" and that explains it all.
Yes. Crap. Utter crap. I guess the scientific community should thank ICR though, b/c they keep identifying areas that could use better explanations - at least to laymen.
Evolution: 160 years of being destroyed and getting stronger.
Is illogic a form of logic or just willful stupidity?
Well, they’re both fruit.
I’m glad scientists are never wrong.
==Creationists said the same thing about the bacterial flagellum motor. It took biologists about 5 seconds to prove them wrong.
Evidence?
==God Bless bacteriophages and all the disease they wreak.
On bacteria? Here some people who apparently learned how to turn pathogenic lemons into lemonaid:
“They (bacteriophages) have been used for over 60 years as an alternative to antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.[4] They are seen as a possible therapy against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria.”
“The logic of this paragraph would get any freshman science student politely ushered back to philosophy or one of those other squishy subjects where critical thinking is not required. Or perhaps burger flipping.”
Yes indeed...perhaps in Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia?
Like the “global warming” scientists?
“==Creationists said the same thing about the bacterial flagellum motor. It took biologists about 5 seconds to prove them wrong.
Evidence?”
I’d like to see that evidence as well.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.