Neandertal: The Answer is Epigenetics Not Evolution by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.

 

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Neandertal: The Answer is Epigenetics Not Evolution

by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. *

Recent genome reports show that the Neandertals are essentially fully human, causing scientists to reclassify them as "archaic humans."^1,2 But what about the apparent subtle differences in anatomy that first caused scientists to claim that Neandertals were a completely different species? It turns out that the answer can be found in epigenetics, according to newly published research.³

Epigenetics, in the more modern sense, refers to the heritable chemical changes performed by cellular machines to DNA that alter gene function without actually changing the DNA nucleotide code. In the field of genomics, it is more accurately referred to as chromatin modification. Chromatin is the stuff chromosomes are made of which consists of the DNA molecule packaged around proteins called histones. Both the DNA and the histone proteins can be chemically modified to control how genes function and are regulated along the chromosome.

Specifically, the DNA molecule is modified by adding methyl groups to the cytosine nucleotides called DNA methylation. In general, the more methylated the DNA is at the start of a gene region, the less active the gene is. The patterns of DNA methylation across the genome are collectively called the methylome and can be compared between similar genomes and correlated with specific types of gene activity.

In a recent report in the journal Science, researchers studied the methylomes of two different Neandertals using a new indirect method of analysis for archaic DNA.³ They corroborated their DNA methylation profiles with modern humans and reported that "over 99% of both archaic genomes show no significant methylation differences compared to the present-day human." Another verification of their technique is that they also analyzed the patterns of Neandertal methylation compared to modern humans in housekeeping genes—those that are required for the maintenance of basic cellular function. The methylation patterns were the same compared to modern humans, indicating that the study's methodology was fairly accurate.
The most interesting aspect of the study came... CONTINUE READING AT ICR.ORG

Darwinism Under the Microscope - Lessons From History · Sylvia Baker

Presented at Edinburgh Creation Group | With the rise of genetics and molecular biology, evidence is emerging that Darwinism is not the unlimited process we once thought.

Sylvia Baker is a biology graduate of the University of Sussex and the University of London. She accepted the evolutionary theory put to her at school and at university - until the pressure of evidence forced her to rethink the whole question.

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Evolutionists Call New Plant Epigenetic Study 'Heresy' - Jeffrey Tomkins, PhD

Evolutionists Call New Plant Epigenetic Study 'Heresy'

by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. *

New research has uncovered a hidden layer of trait-determining epigenetic information that resides outside the DNA sequence in plants. This new discovery challenges the evolutionary paradigms of the scientific community and their long-standing views on how organisms adapt to changing environments at the molecular biological level of the cell. In fact, some are even calling this recent research "evolution heresy."¹

For over the past 50 years, Darwinian evolutionists have attributed changes in an organism's traits to the specific DNA sequences that code for them. They never anticipated a hidden layer of epigenetic information overlaying the DNA code to be directly involved in how a plant interfaces with its environment.

Both plants and animals have genetic machinery that modifies the information and function of their genomes without actually changing their genetic code. This modification process is known as "epigenetics." One of the best studied of these epigenetic processes involves the chemical tagging of DNA nucleotides across the genome using methyl groups. These "methyl tags" are attached to cytosine nucleotides in specific patterns around genes and other expressed sequences by a specialized group of proteins called methyltransferases.

This methyl-tagging system (methylation) plays a key role in determining how and when genes are turned off and on along chromosomes. The specific placement and maintenance of these methyl tags is both dynamic and precise. When a cell divides and its DNA is replicated, the duplication of its methyl-tag patterns is also copied, and this complex systems engineering is only now beginning to be understood.

A recent study of the Arabidopsis plant adds to the emerging importance of epigenetics in adaptation.¹ In this project, researchers tested 80 different Arabidopsis strains that were nearly identical genetically, except for some that lacked a gene controlling proper DNA methylation patterns. Thus, the test focused on a large population of genetically similar plants that had both normal and aberrant levels of methylation in their genomes. The researchers tested the plants over several generations for flowering time and root growth.

The goal of the study was to determine if variability in these traits was passed along from generation to generation by genetic or epigenetic differences. They found that the DNA sequence in the regions of the Arabidopsis genome that control both flowering time and root length was identical for all 80 plants and did not contribute the observed variability. What they discovered was that the inherited variability for these traits was associated with methylation changes!

This whole scenario presents a variety of substantial problems for evolution...CONTINUE READING