midwifetoad
Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008
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| Quote | A trivial result from examination of the genetic code is that about 20% of possible single nucleotide changes are completely neutral, meaning that a substantial proportion of a genome could change without engaging any selection at all. On the other hand, only about 1.5% of the human genome codes for proteins. Selective processes can be far less frequently in action than drift and yet have important effects on the evolution of traits; what the mode of evolution is does not eliminate selection as the cause of the various phenomena Gauger lists.
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Question, not a comment:
Are some "neutral" mutations important in retrospect? That is, does context change the interpretation of a mutation? Does the accumulation of non-selected mutations ever look, in retrospect, like a chain of selection?
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Any version of ID consistent with all the evidence is indistinguishable from evolution.
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