http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/health/8i23apes.htm
It has turned up some interesting genes which they say are the major
causes of the morphological differences between apes and men. The
reasearchers noted that the human version of sialic acid is different from
that found in the apes.
" Varki's pioneering step involved a study of blood and tissue samples from
60 humans from diverse ethnic groups. Scientists compared the samples with
those taken from great apes. The comparison showed that the outer surfaces
of human cells have a different form of one common sugar molecule, termed
sialic acid, found in all other primates.
Sialic acid has a number of roles in health and disease. Bacteria and
viruses use sialic acid to gain a foothold in infecting cells and causing
disease. It also acts as a gateway for chemical messenger molecules that
cells use to communicate and coordinate their activities in everyday life.
In addition, sialic acid may be important for early brain development.
Dr. Varki found that the human sialic acid molecule differs in its lack of
a single oxygen atom. The atom is missing at a key point in sialic acid's
molecular architecture that could affect how cells communicate and their
vulnerability to infections. He believes sialic acid may account for humans
being more susceptible to certain diseases than other primates.
Researchers traced the cause back to one gene. It contains the recipe for
making an enzyme needed to add the oxygen atom to sialic acid in apes. In
humans, part of the gene is deleted, and no oxygen gets pasted into the
sialic acid structure. What difference does the missing oxygen mean for an
animal's health or behavior? Using genetic engineering techniques,
Japanese scientists are raising a colony of mice with the gene segment
intentionally deleted. The Science report quoted Dr. Varki as joking,
``Maybe their mice will speak.'' Scientists, however, believe that many
genes, rather than one, determine key human traits."
What I noticed (most ironically) is that this particular gene, the first
major one known to be clearly human, does indeed go the direction that
anti-evolutionists perfer. The human sialic acid is a degenerate form when
compared with the better ape version. Thus, we can conclude that our
evolution obeys the "anti-evolutionary claims" and represents a loss of
information. We have indeed lost information. God created the apes and we
have degenerated from them. Now that we know that we are lesser than the
apes, does this make the anti-evolutionary crowd happy? :-)
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm