In 2008, Kaçar's postdoctoral advisor, Associate Professor of Biology Eric Gaucher, successfully determined the ancient genetic sequence of Elongation Factor-Tu (EF-Tu), an essential protein in E. coli. EFs are one of the most abundant proteins in bacteria, found in all known cellular life and required for bacteria to survive. That vital role made it a perfect protein for the scientists to answer questions about evolution.
Exactly what I was thinking. How did they determine this
gene was 500 million years old? Cause it was found in
presently existing bacteria which are SUPPOSEDLY very old?
Did they find a bacteria with a time clock in it that read
500 million years, buried under sedimentary rock?
It also appears that the epigenetic mechanisms involved
in genome influence change also. So what does that tell
you about how the gene mutates? Do genes mutate around
a “successful” sequence? (i.e. anything that goes outside
that sequence is harmful to the organisms survival). I.e.
it mutates within a “shere of successful” sequences and not
outside it.
anyway, as always, many other questions.