Scientists find sea sponges share human genes

[edwest2]

Almost 70%.

news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100806/hl_afp/australiasciencegeneticssponge

God bless,
Ed

 

[Dale_M]

That humans and sea sponges share a large amount of DNA really is to be expected, if evolutionary theory is correct. All members of the Animal Kingdom have a common ancestry if we look far enough back in time. The relatively high level of shared genes between sea sponges and humans is surprising, though.

The possible practical use of this research is intriguing:
the article:

Exploring the genetic function of sponge stem cells could provide “deep and important connections” to the genes that influenced human stem cell biology, he said.

“(It) might actually inform the way we think about our own stem cells and how we might be able to use them in future medical applications,” he said.

The findings of this research also contradict a study from last year which concluded that all sponges descended from a common ancestor which was not shared by other animals.
sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402124316.htm

 

[edwest2]

I am seeing more and more inconsistency about what the theory can and cannot show. For instance, from New Scientist -

“In fact, we’re half bananas - around 50% of our genes have close equivalents in plants.”

Can anyone tell me when our banana-human common ancestor diverged?

God bless,
Ed

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

I am seeing more and more inconsistency about what the theory can and cannot show. For instance, from New Scientist -

“In fact, we’re half bananas - around 50% of our genes have close equivalents in plants.”

Can anyone tell me when our banana-human common ancestor diverged?

God bless,
Ed

Nicely done, Ed.

Although I am intrigued by the possibility that some of these species could be sources of stem cells…

 

[Dale_M]

“In fact, we’re half bananas - around 50% of our genes have close equivalents in plants.”

The 50% figure seems awfully high, since the ancestors of animals and land plants diverged back when they were single-celled organisms.
tolweb.org/Eukaryotes/3

However, I am not sure where that 50% figure came from, since the New Scientist editorial didn’t mention a study in support of it.

Can anyone tell me when our banana-human common ancestor diverged?

It seems to be a highly speculative endeavor. However, one claim is that some eukaryotes (single celled organisms) developed the ability to photosynthesize around 1 billion to 1.5 billion years ago.
dblab.rutgers.edu/cyanophora/pdfs/16051178.pdf

 

[didymus]

I’m not sure these “revelations” mean anything at all. My (admittedly basic) understanding is that DNA is the paper the genetic blueprint is written on. So of course there are going to be large segments in common among unrelated species.

What I find much more interesting is “lateral transmission” which blows out the Darwinian model; DNA can be exchanged between species and chunks of RNA can be expelled from our genomes to become diseases.

 

[Nec5]

Sounds about right to me. I know many people that are sponges.

 

[Holly3278]

Wow. Now that is weird! It’s also pretty cool. I read something once that said that when other species of animals share some of the same genes as humans, that simply is evidence for a Creator who is of course our Lord.