Neo-Darwinism vs the neocortex

By: James V. Kohl | Published on: December 2, 2015

(click to enlarge)

From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior

Excerpt: (with my emphasis) Small intranuclear proteins also participate in generating alternative splicing techniques of pre-mRNA and, by this mechanism, contribute to c in at least two species, Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans…. That similar proteins perform functions in humans suggests the possibility that some human sex differences may arise from alternative splicings of otherwise identical genes.

Alternative splicing as a switch to enhance neuroprotection under stress

Excerpt: Alternative splicing is an important post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism for cells to generate transcript variability and proteome diversity^{18, 19}. It is estimated that 95% of multiexonic genes in humans and 65% in Drosophila are alternatively spliced^{20, 21}. In the nervous system, this process is especially common for gene regulation.
Conclusion: Our identification of alternative splicing functioning as a switch to enhance the neuroprotective role of DmNmnat indicates that the neuronal maintenance capacity is regulated endogenously and enhanced under stress for neurons to confer self-protection and higher resistance to adverse conditions.

Reported as: “Under stress, RB is preferably spliced in neurons to produce the neuroprotective PB/PD isoforms. Our results indicate that alternative splicing functions as a switch that regulates the expression of functionally distinct DmNmnat variants.

My comment: Serious scientists have identified alternative splicing functioning as a switch to enhance the neuroprotective role of nutrient-dependent RNA-mediated protein folding chemistry. They have also linked the physiology of reproduction from microRNAs and cell adhesion proteins to supercoiled DNA, which protects organized genomes from virus-driven entropy during thermodynamic cycles of protein biosynthesis and degradation.
Additional article excerpt:

To further investigate the mechanism of DmNMNAT localization, we analysed the C-terminal amino-acid sequence of PC and PD and identified a putative nuclear localization signal, a KKQK motif^{37, 38} encoded in exon 7 (Fig. 2a).

In all invertebrates and vertebrates, biophysically constrained nutrient-dependent RNA-mediated protein folding is controlled by the physiology of reproduction. The physiology of reproduction is controlled by pheromones in species from microbes to humans. That fact suggests that ecological variation can be linked from atoms to ecosystems via ecological adaptations. The ecological adaptations require only a single nutrient energy-dependent base pair change and fixation of a single RNA-mediated amino acid substitution.
There is no need to ever again consider neo-Darwinian evolution in the context of what is known to all serious scientists about RNA-mediated cell type differentiation.
See also: Alternative RNA Splicing in Evolution and Mutation-Driven Evolution
Learn about the difference between mutations and amino acid substitutions and join others who are Combating Evolution to Fight Disease
My comment:
“An alternative theory proposes environmentally induced change in an organism’s behavior as the starting point (1), and “phenotypic plasticity” that is inherited across generations through an unspecified process of “genetic assimilation” (2).”
This is now more than merely an alternative theory of genetic assimilation. It links transgenerational epigenetic effects from nutrient uptake and RNA-mediated events to amino acid substitutions that differentiate the cell types of all cells in all individuals of all organisms. See, for example: Starvation-Induced Transgenerational Inheritance of Small RNAs in C. elegans
The nutrient stress-induced RNA-mediated events, which link the epigenetic landscape to the physical landscape of DNA in the organized genomes of species from microbes to man, also link morphological and behavioral diversity via conserved molecular mechanisms exemplified in the context of biologically plausible ecological speciation in nematodes.
See: System-wide Rewiring Underlies Behavioral Differences in Predatory and Bacterial-Feeding Nematodes
A difference in their feeding behavior and in the anatomy of their mouth parts is linked from nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled feedback loops to ecological, social, and neurogenic niche construction. The change in focus from mutations, natural selection, and the evolution of biodiversity via unknown evolutionary events to nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled RNA-mediated events that differentiate cell types may be required for others to realize the difference between evolutionary theories and biologically-based facts about RNA-mediated events.
RNA-mediated events are biophysically constrained, which means they are a biologically plausible way to link the physics and chemistry of protein folding to increasing organismal complexity via molecular biology. RNA-mediated events can also be compared to any unknown evolutionary events that might arise in the context of an alternative theory about constraint-breaking mutations, or other theories that include no mention of RNA-mediated events.
See also: Phosphorylation-Mediated Regulation of Alternative Splicing in Cancer
Abstract excerpt:

Alternative splicing (AS) is one of the key processes involved in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. AS catalyzes the removal of intronic sequences and the joining of selected exons, thus ensuring the correct processing of the primary transcript into the mature mRNA. The combinatorial nature of AS allows a great expansion of the genome coding potential, as multiple splice-variants encoding for different proteins may arise from a single gene. Splicing is mediated by a large macromolecular complex, the spliceosome, whose activity needs a fine regulation exerted by cis-acting RNA sequence elements and trans-acting RNA binding proteins (RBP). The activity of both core spliceosomal components and accessory splicing factors is modulated by their reversible phosphorylation. The kinases and phosphatases involved in these posttranslational modifications significantly contribute to AS regulation and to its integration in the complex regulative network that controls gene expression in eukaryotic cells.

My comment: Neo-Darwinian theorists continue to ignore everything currently known to serious scientists about RNA-mediated cell type differentiation. If you let them, they will teach another generation of students to become biologically uninformed science idiots.