# Michael Behe: Kafka at the Dover Trial

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/michael-behe-kafka-at-the-dover-trial/12294>\
**Category:** Peaceful Science\
**Tags:** Science, Design, Society\
**Created:** [October 30, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/michael-behe-kafka-at-the-dover-trial/12294 "2020-10-30T02:04:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Rumraket](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/rumraket/32/9328_2.png) [@Rumraket](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Rumraket)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/michael-behe-kafka-at-the-dover-trial/12294/17 "2020-10-30T20:19:16Z")

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I think you did really well @swamidass. And I have to say I think Behe was extremely confused on the topic of exaptation. Clearly the taking of an existing structure and rearranging it so it serves another function is an example of exaptation. Under that clearly canonical definition of exaptation, Michael Behe is _demonstrably incorrect_ to say there have been no examples of exaptation resulting in novel functions and structures in experimental biology.

Just to pick one recent example I wrote about on this very forum, the rearrangement of parts from different genes resulted in a novel chimeric transporter:

> **[In vivo recombination of Saccharomyces eubayanus maltose-transporter genes...](https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1007853)**
>
> Author summary Fermentation of the wort sugar maltotriose is critical for the flavor profile obtained during beer brewing. The recently discovered yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus is gaining popularity as an alternative to S. pastorianus and S....

Here’s an example where gene fusion of different genes (the exaptation of parts already existing of protein coding genes serving other functions) results in a novel function:

> **[Evolution of a New Function by Fusion between Phage DNA and a Bacterial Gene](https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/37/5/1329/5707441)**
>
> Abstract. Mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, phages, and transposons, are important sources for evolution of novel functions. In this study, we perform

Of course, the repurposing of the promoter for the _rnk_ gene which occurred spontaneously in the Lenski long-term evolution experiment, through gene duplication, resulted in a novel phenotypic function: The Cit+ phenotype. Hence it is another textbook example of exaptation resulting in a novel function(see figure for how this occurred):

 ![nihms402795f2](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/peacefulscience/original/2X/9/9b437c67891016a260060517e971a4ebf12f12c9.jpeg)

I have a post on Panda’s Thumb explaining how experiments have shown that pieces of already existing protein coding genes can be copied and rearranged into new functional genes, which would also qualify as examples as exaptation:

> **[Protein chimeras are evidence against ID claims!](https://pandasthumb.org/archives/2020/10/protein-chimeras.html)**

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