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Multipurpose Plant Sensors Startle Scientists

 

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     Plants' amazing sensor systems enable them to adapt in response to multiple environmental cues. Since plants can't get up and move around, they have to grow, develop, and thrive where they are.
     One of the key factors in a plant's life cycle is processing sunlight in the form of duration (day length), light quality (wavelength), and light intensity. All of these interconnected light-related factors are monitored within the plant's leaf cells by a family of sensor proteins called phytochromes: When the red to far-red region of the visible light spectrum changes during the day, or because of shade from neighboring plants, the conformation (3-D shape) of the phytochrome proteins becomes altered and they
act like genetic switches. They tum on and off a whole host of genes that modify plant metabolism, physiology, growth, and development. Phytochromes also help set the plant's circadian rhythm (day/night clock) in addition to telling the plant what time of
year it is, when it should flower and make seeds, or go dormant for the winter.
     Scientists have studied the roles of plant phytochrome sensors in relation to light regulation since the 1960s, but they've been baffled about how plants sense and regulate responses to temperature. In addition to light, temperature is a primary environmental variable that must be properly monitored and responded to for healthy plant growth, development, and physiology. The main problem in the scientific discovery process in isolating a temperature detector was that scientists never envisioned that a sensor such as a phytochrome could do anything but detect and respond to light-an already incredibly complex feat.
  Now, through a series of serendipitous discoveries while studying plants with phytochrome mutants under different temperature regimes, researchers have unexpectedly uncovered an amazing example of complex engineered systems far beyond human reasoning and ingenuity. Not only are phytochromes able to detect different wavelengths of red to far-red light and then directly alter gene expression and a myriad of plant processes, they can sense and respond to temperature as well! This temperature sensing
capacity and seamless integration with the light sensory function is so finely tuned that it enables the plant to make a wide variety
of adjustments in growth and development both during the night and during photosynthesis in daylight.
     Evolutionary scientists did not predict such elaborate sensory integration in a single protein system. Such an amazing piece of
engineering is way beyond human capability and speaks clearly that life was engineered by an omnipotent Creator.

Dr. Tomkins is Director of Life Sciences at the Institute for Creation Research
and
earned his Ph.D. in genetics from Clemson University.

     

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  • Home
  • Creation Articles
    • Did God Use the Big Bang?
    • Was the Global Flood Too Extreme?
    • Infinite Time
    • Asteroid Impact
    • Useless Organs?
    • Resurrect Extinct Species?
    • Human-Chimp DNA
    • Time and Creation
    • Did God Make Monsters?
    • Born Gay?
    • Grace from the Ark & Flood
    • Balancing Church & State
    • Life's Hidden Marvels
    • Time and Creation
    • Testing The Teachers
    • Days before Sun?
    • Life on Mars at Last?
    • Is Evolution A Lie?
    • Is There Anything good about Pain?
    • The Created Placenta
    • So Many Skin Tones
    • Ice Age Scattering of Nations
    • Did The Euphrates Flow Before the Flood?
    • Sloppy Religion Sloppy Science
    • Recent Humans Upend Evolution
    • Are Fossils Just Rocks
    • Subduction Was Essential for the Ice Age
    • Multipurpose Plant Sensors Startle Scientists
    • Why Don't poison Dart Frogs poison Themselves?
    • When did Life Begin?
    • What happened to the dinosaurs after the flood?
    • Contend Earnestly
    • The Universe out of Nothing
    • The Genesis Flood and Evangelism
    • Was the Global Flood to Extreme?
    • The Dark Side of Nature
    • One of a Kind?
    • Science Requires Some Leaps, But No Faith; NOT!
    • Did Humans Evolve From Apes?
    • The Ever-Evolving Human Evolution Story
    • Evolutionism Poisons Christian Worship
    • Confronting a Clever Classroom Con
    • No “Gay” Gene? Do Genetics Determine Morality?
    • Deep Space Objects Are Young
    • Miniscule Erosion Points to Hawaii's Youth
    • What Can We Learn about God from Creation?
    • What is The Image of God?
    • Evolutionism Maligns Christian Education
    • There's Nothing Like an Eyewitness
    • Complex Creature Engineering Requires a Creator
    • The Syrinx Song
    • Do Carbon Ages Refute a Biblical Timeline?
    • Genesis and the Oceans
    • Six Biological Evidences for a Young Earth
    • Extraterrestrial Life More Common Than Previously Thought?
  • About
    • We Believe
    • Our Mission / Vision
  • Testimony
  • Bio
  • Spiritual Fruit
  • Contact