John Wilkins wrote:

wbarwell wrote:

Jim07D5 wrote:

"Noone Inparticular" <unreve89@hotmail.com> said:

wbarwell wrote:

Lion baiters for Jesus wrote:

Into alt.atheism shot "maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> and breathlessly
exclaimed:

No Easy Victory Ensues in Legal Battle Over Evolution

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001986_pf.html

Intelligent Design Theorists Far From 1920s Fundamentalists

By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; A03



HARRISBURG, Pa. -- By any measure, the professor appeared
trapped on the legal ropes.

Biochemistry professor Michael J. Behe had just conceded in
federal court that precious few scientists support the
intelligent design theory, which holds that the machinery of
life is so complex as to require the hand of an intelligent
creator.

Does anybody know of an example of a living organism that is so
perfect that it would pass quality control inspection at a
factory?

Pelagobactor ubique. This may well be the most common
bacteria in the world. It is found in almost all oceans.
It is a small and simple scavenger that eats almost any
organic debris. Fish feces, abandoned shrimp egg casings,
bits of dead algae, scraps of dead organisms left over
from larger organism's meals.

It has 1,450 genes. It has no junk DNA, no introns,
its DNA is very well organized, none of the broken
up sequences often found in other organisms. It has
even managed to have long setions of DNA that are rich
in nitrogen-free amino acids, which is marvelous as
nitrogen is a bottleneck in open oceans.

"long sections of DNA that are rich in nitrogen-free amino
acids"?!?!?!

I was stuck on that line, too.
--- Jim07D5

Relatively free. Happier?

Hey, let us have our fun so we can all feel superior. No fair
adducing facts...

Pelagibacter, with the single species P. ubique, are possibly the
most numerous bacteria in the world. They were originally named
SAR11 and known only from their rRNA genes, which were first
identified in environmental samples from the Sargasso Sea in 1990.
The bacteria responsible were isolated in 2002 and given a specific
name, although it has not yet been validly published according to
the bacteriological code.

Pelagibacter has a world-wide distribution and is found among the
bacterioplankton. They are some of the smallest self-replicating
cells known, with a diameter of only 0.12-0.20 µm.

Pelagibacter has just 1,354 genes, compared to humans, which have
around 30,000 genes. It has none of the genetic clutter that most
genomes have accumulated over time: there are no duplicate gene
copies, no viral genes, and no junk DNA. The shorter length
effectively means less 'work' to copy each generation as the
bacteria reproduces. Also, base pairs are used that contain less
nitrogen, since nitrogen is a relatively difficult nutrient for
living things to obtain. The result, supported by their abundance,
is a very efficient life form.

I'm guessing it appears in Ventner's metagenome samples of the
region - how do you know it is so ubiquitous? Has it been observed
in other locales?

Reason I ask is that I am trying to figure out how regionalised the
marine environment is to eurytopic organisms...

Hard for me to say. Much of the real interesting sounding stuff
is in pay-for-view journals. So its hard to follow up with
primary sources. I suspect that somebody did a survey and
has found it is very widespread. But I get what I have from
secondary sources.

But something had to be the smallest, most efficient,
most junk DNA free bacteria and this seems to be it.

Unless somebody comes up with something even smaller
and more efficient. I suspect here we are getting down
to the minimum size and genome size for a living bacteria
that is not parasitical.

As far as I can see, the only limiting factor may be cold
tolerance.

[edit]

References
Michael S. Rappé, Stephanie A. Connon, Kevin L. Vergin, Stephen J.
Giovannoni (2002). Cultivation of the ubiquitous SAR11 marine
bacterioplankton clade. Nature 418: 630-633.
R. M. Morris et al. (2002). SAR11 clade dominates ocean surface
bacterioplankton communities. Nature 420: 806 - 810.
Stephen J. Giovannoni, H. James Tripp et. al (2005). Genome
Streamlining in a Cosmopolitan Oceanic Bacterium. Science 309:
1242-1245. DOI:10.1126/science.1114057

Categories: Rickettsiales

John Wilkins wrote:

wbarwell wrote:

Jim07D5 wrote:

"Noone Inparticular" <unreve89@hotmail.com> said:

wbarwell wrote:

Lion baiters for Jesus wrote:

Into alt.atheism shot "maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> and breathlessly
exclaimed:

No Easy Victory Ensues in Legal Battle Over Evolution

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001986_pf.html

Intelligent Design Theorists Far From 1920s Fundamentalists

By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; A03



HARRISBURG, Pa. -- By any measure, the professor appeared
trapped on the legal ropes.

Biochemistry professor Michael J. Behe had just conceded in
federal court that precious few scientists support the
intelligent design theory, which holds that the machinery of
life is so complex as to require the hand of an intelligent
creator.

Does anybody know of an example of a living organism that is so
perfect that it would pass quality control inspection at a
factory?

Pelagobactor ubique. This may well be the most common
bacteria in the world. It is found in almost all oceans.
It is a small and simple scavenger that eats almost any
organic debris. Fish feces, abandoned shrimp egg casings,
bits of dead algae, scraps of dead organisms left over

from larger organism's meals.

It has 1,450 genes. It has no junk DNA, no introns,
its DNA is very well organized, none of the broken
up sequences often found in other organisms. It has
even managed to have long setions of DNA that are rich
in nitrogen-free amino acids, which is marvelous as
nitrogen is a bottleneck in open oceans.

"long sections of DNA that are rich in nitrogen-free amino
acids"?!?!?!

I was stuck on that line, too.
--- Jim07D5

Relatively free. Happier?

Hey, let us have our fun so we can all feel superior. No fair adducing facts...

OK, John, what am I missing? DNA does not contain amino acids. So what
facts have I not got?

<snip rest>

We do have lead-free plumbers. But you need a classical
education to understand the contradiction
there.

Jim07D5 wrote:

John Wilkins <john@wilkins.id.au> said:

Brian E. Clark wrote:

In article <1129930717.966154.129460
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, Noone Inparticular said...

It has even managed to have long sections of DNA that
are rich in nitrogen-free amino acids, which is marvelous
as nitrogen is a bottleneck in open oceans.

"long sections of DNA that are rich in nitrogen-free amino
acids"?!?!?!

I get the same puzzled feeling whenever people talk about
"Caffeine-free Coke."

Next up: long chains of phosphorus-free DNA...

We do have lead-free plumbers.
But you need a classical education to understand the contradiction
there.

wbarwell wrote:

John Wilkins wrote:

Brian E. Clark wrote:

In article <1129930717.966154.129460
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, Noone Inparticular said...

It has even managed to have long sections of DNA that
are rich in nitrogen-free amino acids, which is marvelous
as nitrogen is a bottleneck in open oceans.

"long sections of DNA that are rich in nitrogen-free amino
acids"?!?!?!

I get the same puzzled feeling whenever people talk about
"Caffeine-free Coke."

Next up: long chains of phosphorus-free DNA...

Pelagibacter, with the single species P. ubique, are possibly the
most numerous bacteria in the world. They were originally named
SAR11 and known only from their rRNA genes, which were first
identified in environmental samples from the Sargasso Sea in 1990.
The bacteria responsible were isolated in 2002 and given a specific
name, although it has not yet been validly published according to
the bacteriological code.

Pelagibacter has a world-wide distribution and is found among the
bacterioplankton. They are some of the smallest self-replicating
cells known, with a diameter of only 0.12-0.20 µm.

Pelagibacter has just 1,354 genes, compared to humans, which have
around 30,000 genes. It has none of the genetic clutter that most
genomes have accumulated over time: there are no duplicate gene
copies, no viral genes, and no junk DNA. The shorter length
effectively means less 'work' to copy each generation as the
bacteria reproduces.


Also, base pairs are used that contain less nitrogen, since
nitrogen

is a relatively difficult nutrient for living things to obtain. The

result, supported by their abundance, is a very efficient life
form.
[edit]

References
Michael S. Rappé, Stephanie A. Connon, Kevin L. Vergin, Stephen J.
Giovannoni (2002). Cultivation of the ubiquitous SAR11 marine
bacterioplankton clade. Nature 418: 630-633.
R. M. Morris et al. (2002). SAR11 clade dominates ocean surface
bacterioplankton communities. Nature 420: 806 - 810.
Stephen J. Giovannoni, H. James Tripp et. al (2005). Genome
Streamlining in a Cosmopolitan Oceanic Bacterium. Science 309:
1242-1245. DOI:10.1126/science.1114057

Categories: Rickettsiales

Apologies for the cheap shot - it's what I do...

Next up. Monkey chatter free usenet threads?

Never happen.

wbarwell wrote:

John Wilkins wrote:

Brian E. Clark wrote:

In article <1129930717.966154.129460
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, Noone Inparticular said...

It has even managed to have long sections of DNA that
are rich in nitrogen-free amino acids, which is marvelous
as nitrogen is a bottleneck in open oceans.

"long sections of DNA that are rich in nitrogen-free amino
acids"?!?!?!

I get the same puzzled feeling whenever people talk about
"Caffeine-free Coke."

Next up: long chains of phosphorus-free DNA...

Pelagibacter, with the single species P. ubique, are possibly the most
numerous bacteria in the world. They were originally named SAR11 and
known only from their rRNA genes, which were first identified in
environmental samples from the Sargasso Sea in 1990. The bacteria
responsible were isolated in 2002 and given a specific name, although
it has not yet been validly published according to the
bacteriological code.

Pelagibacter has a world-wide distribution and is found among the
bacterioplankton. They are some of the smallest self-replicating
cells known, with a diameter of only 0.12-0.20 µm.

Pelagibacter has just 1,354 genes, compared to humans, which have
around 30,000 genes. It has none of the genetic clutter that most
genomes have accumulated over time: there are no duplicate gene
copies, no viral genes, and no junk DNA. The shorter length
effectively means less 'work' to copy each generation as the bacteria
reproduces.


Also, base pairs are used that contain less nitrogen, since nitrogen
--------------------------------------------------------------------
is a relatively difficult nutrient for living things to obtain. The
--------------------------------------------------------------------
result, supported by their abundance, is a very efficient life form.
[edit]

References
Michael S. Rappé, Stephanie A. Connon, Kevin L. Vergin, Stephen J.
Giovannoni (2002). Cultivation of the ubiquitous SAR11 marine
bacterioplankton clade. Nature 418: 630-633.
R. M. Morris et al. (2002). SAR11 clade dominates ocean surface
bacterioplankton communities. Nature 420: 806 - 810.
Stephen J. Giovannoni, H. James Tripp et. al (2005). Genome
Streamlining in a Cosmopolitan Oceanic Bacterium. Science 309:
1242-1245. DOI:10.1126/science.1114057

Categories: Rickettsiales

Apologies for the cheap shot - it's what I do...

Next up. Monkey chatter free usenet threads?

Never happen.