Has the E-coli bacteria circumvented the “irreducebly complex” mechanisms and “evolved” into something higher ?
Ewert, demonstrated the contrary.
“Lenski’s experiments have produced a strain of E. coli that can metabolize citrate under aerobic conditions. This change to the strain is a fascinating innovation.However, because E. coli already has the ability to take up and metabolize citrate under anaerobic conditions, this innovation is simply the re-use of existing parts under different conditions. It is not an example of the de novo evolution of an irreducibly complex process".
"Upon sequencing the new strain it was found that,besides one or two permissive mutations such as the up-regulation of the path-way involved in citrate metabolism, the bacteria had amplified the gene involved in citrate transport, and placed it under the control of a new regulatory element, such that it was now expressed under aerobic conditions. No new complex adaptations or structures had been created; rather pre-existing ones were regulated differently” (Ewert. W 2014) (Emphasis ours).
References:
Ewert. W. 2014. “Digital Irreducible Complexity: A Survey of
Irreducible Complextity in Computer Simulations.” Bio-Complexity
(1):1-10 doi:10.5048/BIO-C2014.1.
http://bio-complexity.org/ojs/index.php/main/article/view/BIO-C.2014.1/BIO-C.2014.1.
