Purple Monkey Dishwasher

What are some instances of an observed mutation that was beneficial to the species.

cloudyphiz

<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mutations.html" target="_blank">http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mutations.html</a>
<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/" target="_blank">http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/</a>

RufusAtticus

Clarifying Questions:
Do you want an observed mutation event or any benefical mutation? What about the type of organism?

(These have been sticklers in the past with your question.)

Hemoglobin-S and the CCR5 gene are good examples from the human population.

Nylon-digestion in bacteria is a really cool example of novel benifical mutations:
<a href="http://www.nmsr.org/nylon.htm" target="_blank">http://www.nmsr.org/nylon.htm</a>

-RvFvS

scigirl

Try the <a href="http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.html" target="_blank">evolution evidence page</a>. There's lots of good stuff on there.

scigirl

Nic Tamzek

Dude, I never saw that before. It should be on t.o. or something.

Nick

Dr Rick

Here's a recent one that was beneficial for a bacterium but not so good for the man who was infected by it:

NEJM:Volume 346:630-631 February 21, 2002 Number 8 Emergence of Macrolide Resistance during Treatment of Pneumococcal Pneumonia Musher, et. al.

...A previously healthy 28-year-old man presented with a five-day history of cough and dyspnea...and culture yielded Streptococcus pneumoniae; blood cultures were negative.

Empirical therapy with 500 mg of azithromycin per day intravenously was begun at admission, and the patient's condition improved rapidly. On the fourth day of treatment, his condition suddenly deteriorated...multiorgan failure developed, and the patient died.

The initial [bacterial] isolate was fully susceptible to all antibiotics tested...In contrast, the isolate [later cultured]...was resistant to...azithromycin.

Genes encoding 23s ribosomal RNA and ribosomal proteins involved in macrolide binding were sequenced. The gene for ribosomal protein L22 in the macrolide-resistant mutant contained an 18-bp tandem repeat that was not present in the original isolate. This insertion resulted in the duplication of six amino acids...We hypothesize that, in the mutant strain from this patient, the six-amino-acid repeat in L22 disrupts the binding cavity by altering the tertiary structure of the hairpin. The mutation occurred during therapy, causing a relapse that was fatal.

pseudobug

If you will <a href="http://biocrs.biomed.brown.edu/Darwin/DI/Parts-is-Parts.html" target="_blank">click on this link</a>, you will find a description, in laymens terms of an experiment devised precisely to show that a bacterium can acquire multiple mutations to restore the ability to use the sugar lactose as a carbon and energy source.

The paper that is summarized in the link above blows Behe's "Irreducibly complexity" nonsense out of the water AND demonstrates the beneficial mutations leading to the evolution of pathway.

Automaton

And don't you creationists claim that it wasn't "real evolution" because it involved a lab and a scientist. All the experimenter did was remove genetic information and create a new selection pressure. There is no difference if this selection pressure came from nature or from a petri dish. There are no magical "design rays" that fly from intelligent agent's bodies and inform the organism that it's OK to evolve since it isn't "real evolution"!