Charles Darwin,
CypA,
Darwin Devolves,
Darwinian processes,
Evolution,
FCT,
function,
Functional-Coded-elemenT,
HIV,
information,
isoform,
natural selection,
New Scientist,
Origin of Species,
owl monkey,
protein,
random mutation,
retroviruses,
rhesus macaque,
RNA,
The Quarterly Review of Biology,
TRIM5
I was asked to address a comment left by a viewer of one of Discovery’s YouTube videos. The comment is:1 Some monkeys have a mutation in a protein called TRIM5 that results in a piece of another, defunct protein being tacked onto TRIM5. The result is a hybrid protein called TRIM5-CypA, which can protect cells from infection with retroviruses such as HIV. Here, a single mutation has resulted in a new protein with a new and potentially vital function. New protein, new function, new information. A bit of Googling shows that the text was taken word-for-word from an old article (2008) on the New Scientist website2 (perhaps by way of intermediate copying). That was during a period when the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species was…