Neochrome. Sounds shiny. For most of us the term might conjure some new product advertised at length on an infomercial on late-night TV. Picture some fast-talking guy with caffeine-induced enthusiasm explaining how “Neochrome” will change your life. “No longer will you have to look at dull surfaces. It shines plastic. It shines metal. It even shines dull corduroy and old Elvis lampshades.”
“Gasp!” the studio audience reacts. Their lives are about to be changed forever, and for only $19.99 plus shipping, handling, and upgrading to “Advanced Neochrome” that comes with a 99-year warranty and a “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back” pledge legal in any court in any country except North Korea.
Sorry. No such product here. You’ll need to find some other way of cleaning your Elvis lampshade. Neochrome is a protein found in mosses and ferns, but not in other plants. It has a specific function. It enables these plants to survive and flourish in the low-light conditions of a forest floor. Neochrome enables phototropism and chloroplast movement under red light whereas just about every plant you have every seen uses blue light for these two processes.
Strange. Mosses and ferns don’t seem to be closely related. Mosses are Bryophytes and ferns are non-Bryophytes embryophyta.* On the tree of life mosses seem to be a dead end. No other group seems to have arisen from them. Evolution seems to have said, “I like what I see. They can do well on their own, and they need nothing beyond what they are. Apparently, I stumbled on the perfect plant, one that needs no further adaptation.” The line of ferns is a bit more complicated, running from those early non-Bryophytes through Tracheophtyes, Eutracheophytes, Euphyllophytes, Pteridophtyes and Monilophytes and Lignophytes, and, well, on down to the different species of ferns that exist today.
Again, strange. How did both the ferns and the mosses, which have seemingly little in common, evolve the same kind of protein to help them thrive in low light? Some have argued for a transfer via viruses or bacteria. You know, some early fern was minding its business when something happened akin to bird or swine flu or HIV. The protein jumped from one species to another, but in the case of ferns became a beneficial intruder. Others** argue that neochromes, being “monophyletic,” have arisen independently at least twice in the history of plants, and mosses and ferns (and hornworts?) have been the fortunate recipients of such independent evolution.
“So,” you ask, “what’s the point? I’m not a botanist, but I do have a fern because it is easier to care for than a dog.”
The point lies in the independent evolution of a trait that enables two different groups to survive in the same harsh (low-light) environment. Pretty much like the separate groups through history that have become the forces of night and darkness, the vandals, criminals, and terrorists that seem to thrive in places others shun. Is there a lateral transfer of a gene for evil in unrelated groups? Think of what has occurred. Different groups in different countries in different times, all seemingly unrelated, have taken refuge in low light. There doesn’t have to be a mechanism of lateral transfer. Similar forms of evil appear to evolve separately with no common ancestor to pass on the trait for living in semi-light, much like the ability that neochrome gives to mosses and ferns.
If the independent evolution of evil is a mechanism of life, then we will always have the potential for evil. If evil evolves as a matter of transfer, then there’s hope that we can someday make its carrier a dead end. Next time you see ferns or some moss, ask yourself about the origin of any evil or evil group.
* Non-Bryophytes embryophyta also include the hornworts, a branch of plant life that long ago (Early Cretaceous?) separated from the fern lineage. Neochrome could have evolved separately in hornworts and then jumped somehow into ferns.
** Suetsugu, Noriyuki, et. al., A chimeric photoreceptor gene, NEOCHROME, has arisen twice during plant evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 102, no. 38, 13705-13709, doi: 10:1073/phas.0504734102 at PNAS online http://www.pnas.org/content/102/38/13705.full
“Gasp!” the studio audience reacts. Their lives are about to be changed forever, and for only $19.99 plus shipping, handling, and upgrading to “Advanced Neochrome” that comes with a 99-year warranty and a “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back” pledge legal in any court in any country except North Korea.
Sorry. No such product here. You’ll need to find some other way of cleaning your Elvis lampshade. Neochrome is a protein found in mosses and ferns, but not in other plants. It has a specific function. It enables these plants to survive and flourish in the low-light conditions of a forest floor. Neochrome enables phototropism and chloroplast movement under red light whereas just about every plant you have every seen uses blue light for these two processes.
Strange. Mosses and ferns don’t seem to be closely related. Mosses are Bryophytes and ferns are non-Bryophytes embryophyta.* On the tree of life mosses seem to be a dead end. No other group seems to have arisen from them. Evolution seems to have said, “I like what I see. They can do well on their own, and they need nothing beyond what they are. Apparently, I stumbled on the perfect plant, one that needs no further adaptation.” The line of ferns is a bit more complicated, running from those early non-Bryophytes through Tracheophtyes, Eutracheophytes, Euphyllophytes, Pteridophtyes and Monilophytes and Lignophytes, and, well, on down to the different species of ferns that exist today.
Again, strange. How did both the ferns and the mosses, which have seemingly little in common, evolve the same kind of protein to help them thrive in low light? Some have argued for a transfer via viruses or bacteria. You know, some early fern was minding its business when something happened akin to bird or swine flu or HIV. The protein jumped from one species to another, but in the case of ferns became a beneficial intruder. Others** argue that neochromes, being “monophyletic,” have arisen independently at least twice in the history of plants, and mosses and ferns (and hornworts?) have been the fortunate recipients of such independent evolution.
“So,” you ask, “what’s the point? I’m not a botanist, but I do have a fern because it is easier to care for than a dog.”
The point lies in the independent evolution of a trait that enables two different groups to survive in the same harsh (low-light) environment. Pretty much like the separate groups through history that have become the forces of night and darkness, the vandals, criminals, and terrorists that seem to thrive in places others shun. Is there a lateral transfer of a gene for evil in unrelated groups? Think of what has occurred. Different groups in different countries in different times, all seemingly unrelated, have taken refuge in low light. There doesn’t have to be a mechanism of lateral transfer. Similar forms of evil appear to evolve separately with no common ancestor to pass on the trait for living in semi-light, much like the ability that neochrome gives to mosses and ferns.
If the independent evolution of evil is a mechanism of life, then we will always have the potential for evil. If evil evolves as a matter of transfer, then there’s hope that we can someday make its carrier a dead end. Next time you see ferns or some moss, ask yourself about the origin of any evil or evil group.
* Non-Bryophytes embryophyta also include the hornworts, a branch of plant life that long ago (Early Cretaceous?) separated from the fern lineage. Neochrome could have evolved separately in hornworts and then jumped somehow into ferns.
** Suetsugu, Noriyuki, et. al., A chimeric photoreceptor gene, NEOCHROME, has arisen twice during plant evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 102, no. 38, 13705-13709, doi: 10:1073/phas.0504734102 at PNAS online http://www.pnas.org/content/102/38/13705.full
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