Neutral, deleterious and beneficial are all just mutations from a previously "normal" (non-mutated) gene. Many of the useful mutations are actually a net loss of the original useful code.
There are no normal (non-mutated) genes. All the various alleles of a gene are mutations. How could you possibly tell which allele is the normal one? You just made this up.
Most mutations are neutral. The more neutral mutations there are, the less original useful material the organism has left to work with. Neutral is not useful - it's just in the way.
That is not how it works. The neutral genes are neutral in terms of fitness, but they still function just fine.
There is no
original useful material, as you call it, in each organism. The genes have been passed on to offspring, with modification, over and over, since the first common ancestor.
Neutral does not mean non-functional.
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Natural selection works at the molecular level now? Weeding out only the bad mutations?
Natural Selection will obviously weed out genes that affect the ability of the organism to survive and reproduce, if the organism dies before it can do that. The genes that are carried in the rest of the population will be passed on, but if there were new beneficial mutations in the organism that carried the lethal mutation then they are lost also.
The more common situation is that each organism in the population carries a few mutations, some inherited and some new, and some of the members of the population have fewer offspring than others, and over time fewer and fewer descendants.
Genetic load is a bullshit term that creationists grab on to because sounds like it means something that supports their ideas, but it doesn't. There is no evidence that a genome can be overburdened to the point it quits functioning.
quote:
One problem with calculating genetic load is that in order to do so you have to a have a perfect or optimal genotype with which to compare the population to; this kind of genotype simply does not exist. This is problem because it means that it is harder for scientists to gauge with accuracy how much load a population has, and how much load it can bear without being in danger. This means that all perceptions of genetic load should be taken with a grain of salt.[19]
Emphasis mine.
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
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