No Junk DNA vs. Rarity of Function

[Mercer (John Mercer)]

@Agauger

That’s an interesting example. Using the power of the immune system to search for a protein that binds to a hapten that resembles the transition state of the reaction desired is pretty ingenious. I’d have to read some papers to see how the work was done.

Indeed it is. It’s disturbing though, because someone who makes global claims about the rarity of function in protein sequence space should have already read the papers in detail.

Especially someone who discounts evidence by retroactively applying the standard of “genuinely new” to enzymatic activities, because these are genuinely new.

@Agauger

But that’s a designed system, making use of an elegant system to target a desired reaction and refine its specificity over time.

That preobjection is unfounded, as Swamidass noted.

Note also that to use this as a test of your hypothesis, you’d disregard any refinement stages and take the frequency that gives the first hint of measurable enzymatic activity.

Then you’d be sure to regard that frequency as a rock-bottom minimum, as catalytic antibodies are constrained to fit inside IgG variable regions, while most proteins in vivo are much larger.

@Agauger

As for the last, I would be performing these experiments myself, except I have developed an essential tremor, that gives me shaky hands.

I’m sorry to hear that. Does that mean that no one is doing bench work there any more?