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Author Topic:   Why There Are Two Sexes
miosim
Member (Idle past 5678 days)
Posts: 57
From: NH, USA
Joined: 04-07-2007


Message 1 of 2 (445799)
01-03-2008 11:02 PM


I have no degree in Biology, but I would like to present the hypothesis about the two sexes emergence. I started working on this idea many years ago, but didn’t finish it, partially because I didn’t have much of opportunity to discuss it with experts. I sent it a couple of times to scientists, who in my opinion could’ve been interested, but the idea didn’t generate much of enthusiasm. The most comprehensive respond I received was as follows:
“ . There is a large amount of data that indicate that a process like what you describe is not happening in biological systems that are studied presently. Nobody would have necessarily stated that their data rule out a mechanism similar to what you propose because they wouldn't think about this possible mechanism.”
I would like to have a more specific objection to my hypothesis. Can someone point to these evidences? Or maybe someone knows the data that are in favor to this hypothesis and even could propose the experiment to falsify or to confirm this hypothesis. Any contribution will be greatly appreciated.
P.S.
Sorry for my grammatical and stylistical mistakes. Unfortunately, my 15 years old editor-in-chief is too busy with her own homework. Please let me know if something I am writing is unclear and needs corrections.
Thank you,
Mark Iosim
_________________________WHY THERE ARE TWO SEXES EXIST?_________________________
STRUGGLING WITH EXISTING PARADIGM
Years ago, I was curios about very general aspects of living systems development and even started my own investigation. Step by step the scope of my investigation was narrowing down and eventually it led me to a very controversial hypothesis about DNA molecule genetic activity that however may explain two sex’s existence.
The double strand DNA molecule contains one DNA strand inherited from the parental DNA strand and one newly synthesized. Both strands carry genetic information, however, according to my hypothesis, only one of them - newly synthesized strand is genetically active in the double stranded DNA molecule, while another strand is blocked from transcription. As a result, sister DNA molecules, emerging as result of single DNA autoreplication, while having identical genetic code, should have a dramatic difference in their genetic expression, because they have different newly synthesized DNA strands. Another word, according to this hypothesis, DNA autoreplication process always yields two sisters DNA molecules (and sister cells accordingly) of opposite complement types.
Unfortunately this hypothesis contradicts to one essential paradigm of molecular biology stating that in the most cases, sister DNA molecules must have identical genetic activity. Though, I could not understand how that paradigm was tested, i.e. how the genetic activity of single DNA molecules was determined. Even modern methods, are often unable to determine a single DNA molecule genetic activity. Instead, the cumulative genetic activity pattern of "DNA soup", consisting at least of thousands or even millions DNA molecules, is only tested. Despite a thorough literary search and discussions with experts in the field, I came upon an unexpected result: nobody could uncover any proofs for this paradigm, regardless of a general confidence in their existence.
THIS HYPOTHESYS IS DEAD ON ARRIVAL.
I have continued developing my controversial idea that seems to contradict not just a paradigm, but a common sense also, because our hypothetical cells have a limited access to its own genetic information. Yet, I may argue that a cell doesn't need genetic information itself, but the products of that information only. This is like a cake. You do not need to know the recipe to enjoy it. Genetic information serves as a recipe for cell products. If a cell has enough of them, it should not worry about the genetic recipe. For instance, our blood cells do not contain genetic information (nuclear DNA), but the necessary products only and the cells successfully maintain their living standards.
Regardless the limited access to some genetic recipes our hypothetical cells should have complete set of necessary genetic products, because cells may inherit them from a parental cell. The “pregnant” parental cell holds inside its boundary two sister cells that emerge as a result of DNA autoreplication process. The sister cells “cook” different (complement) dishes, but able freely share them while being inside the same boundary of a parental cell. These products, inherited by sister cells after separation, must provide them not only with a vital capacity, but also make them practically indistinguishable.
When parental ingredients become consumed, to survive our hypothetical cells have no choice, but auto-replicate again to refill missing genetic products. So, our hypothetical cells propagate, not because they are "worry" about future generations and survival of species, but because cells “worry” about they own vital capacity. Dependence of this cell on propagation must have forced their breeding that eventually, should cause the predominant spreading of these cells (compared to the cells, whose survival doesn't depend on autoreplication). Therefore, "our" cells may have been the main materials for evolutionary steps that followed i.e. they must have been the brick, which had been laid in foundation of the living Nature of our planet.
EMERGENCE OF TWO SEXES
It is well known that under conditions of low temperature or starvation, the cells cannot grow and auto-replicate themselves. Under this condition, our hypothetical cells must die after parental product’s depletion. This is not a speculation only. There are numerous observations (but no explanation) of massive cell deaths occurring during a long artificial block of cell auto-reproduction. To survive in this circumstance, the cells of opposite type can merge with each other and the resulting cell can generate a complete set of necessary genetic products and this way is capable of survival.
There is a striking similarity between the cells of our model and well-studied single-cell eukaryotic organisms. In their populations, each cell produces two sister cells of opposite type and as a result, the population consists of two type of cells. Under conditions preventing cell growth and auto-replication, the cells of opposite types merge to start the most ancient rituals, referred as the sexual process.
Based on this and other facts I came to a conclusion that sexual process emerged as a survival mechanism during unfavorable environmental conditions. In the beginning, cell merging was divorced from reproduction that emerged later. Eventually cell-merging process led to recombination of genetic material. During evolutionary stages that followed, recombination proved its advantage and has become more regular in character. However, even now we can often observe cell couples, who neglect their roles. These couples go through conjugation, but like a reminder of past times, they do not mix their genetic material and don't form a family (zygote).
In this post I covered a basic mechanism that may explain emergence of two sexes. This model may explain some other aspects of two sexes existence you can read about in my essay "WHY THERE ARE TWO SEXES EXIST?" http://home.earthlink.net/...y_there_are_two_sexes_essay.pdf
The most detailed presentation of this hypothesis is "DNA Asymmetric Gene Activity”
http://home.earthlink.net/...na_asymmetric_gene_activity.pdf
Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Changed topic title from "WHY THERE ARE TWO SEXES EXIST?" to "Why There Are Two Sexes". Could also have been "Why Two Sexes Exist". One way or the other, I'm getting rid of all those upper case letters (maybe I could sell them to Arachnophilia?).

Adminnemooseus
Administrator
Posts: 3974
Joined: 09-26-2002


Message 2 of 2 (445809)
01-03-2008 11:35 PM


Thread copied to the Why There Are Two Sexes thread in the Miscellaneous Topics in Creation/Evolution forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.

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