Evolution, lack of mechanism

[fscottdahlgren]

I remember reading an article that looked at the melting temperature of tRNA as a function of surface water temperature over the past few billion years. That has been some time, and I have yet to see another quantitative approach to evolution. Does anyone know of a group that studies evolution, without evoking the all powerful arsenal of selections?

[mith]

Melting temperature of tRNA?

[fscottdahlgren]

http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~charley/pape ... milton.pdf

Tm refers to the temperature where the energy of the functional molecule is equal to the energy of the scrambled molecule.

[david23]

whether the Tm of tRNA changes or not will not effect and is not attributed to evolution.

[mith]

This paper is weird, it's only got 2 sections....usually there's a data, method and then a discussion. Was this published anywhere?

[blcr11]

It looks like it may be a presentation at a conference. Whether the procedings are "published" or simply posted, I can't say. Near as I can tell, the methods used by the authors is to restate others--not that you can't do that, but this is not what I would consider a formal publication. They are talking about ribosomal RNA, though, not transfer RNA, at least that's what all the phylogeny is based on.

[wbla3335]

fscottdahlgren,

If you're interested in this sort of thing, read Singularities: Landmarks on the Pathways of Life, by Christian De Duve. Mechanisms galore, with and without selection.