Behe vs. Caroll Reloaded
by GutsIan Musgrave of the Pandas Thumb has chimed in on the exchange between Behe and Caroll, in which he makes this point (among many):
As well, pyrimethamine resistance develops very rapidly, 6 years from the first appearance of resistance to fixation of 3 or 4 mutation-bearing enzymes is typical (Sanderfur et al., 2007, Talisuna et al., 2004). This is not consistent with the need for simultaneous double mutations (Talisuna et al., 2004).
However, I don't see how that conclusion follows. It seems that once the triple+ mutants arrive in the population and the drug is used extensively, it spreads quickly through the population. But how long they took to develop is an open question. In fact, according to this paper it seems that they evolved long before they arrived in Africa, despite the already existing double-mutants and pressure from the drug.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
In the immediate aftermath of the publication of Behe's book there was a blitzkrieg. Critical comments everywhere you turned on the web. Now there is the very occasional remark mostly in response to something written on Behe's blog. Let's bury him fast and then ignore him.
Comment by Bradford — November 15, 2007 @ 6:11 pm