Nylon-Eating Bacteria and Adaptation

Nylon has existed since 1935, and it was discovered in the late 20th century that some strains of bacteria eat the stuff. Later, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was caused through human intervention to also join the luncheon. The discovery of nylonase (the popular name for enzymes used by these bacteria to degrade nylon) has been proclaimed as strong evidence of microbes to microbiologist evolution.

Credit: CDC / Janice Haney Carr
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As is common in evolution-promoting research, important elements have been overlooked. Also, newer studies by biblical creationists indicates that bacteria, like other living organisms, are engineered to adapt. In this case, the mechanisms were already put in place for the consumption of nylon by our Creator. Extrapolating such changes are a common conflation tactic by Darwin's disciples to promote universal common descent evolution. There is no reason to think that changes are due to Darwinian randomness. Indeed, the changes are indications against that, and support design — they were engineered that way.

We have several articles from 2015 to examine. I'll allow that they are far above my skill level, although I did get something out of them anyway. These are presented for people who have strong science education in such areas. Let's start with the introduction to the first article, and then I'll link to the lot of them. Of course, village evolutionists on the web will ignore the evidence (some persist in calling creationist scientists "liars" instead of intelligently dealing intelligently with the material), but you can keep this handy for reference if you encounter someone honestly seeking this information.

The manufacture of nylon-6 generates waste materials not present before in nature which several bacterial species can degrade. Three enzymes (E-I, E-II, and E-III), able to hydrolyse various amide bonds in these waste substances were shown to be responsible for these processes. The optimized versions of these enzymes are likely to have arisen within a few decades, mostly under selection in a laboratory. In the first of this 4-part series we show that this waste degradation is not evidence for purposeless evolution but is consistent with a creation model of flexible organisms and ecologies, front-loaded to be adaptable to future environments and contingencies. A summary of the extensive literature on ‘nylon-eating bacteria’ is offered herein, followed in parts 2 and 3 by key publications dealing with the origin of the key modified enzymes. This background overview then permits the essence of the matter to be analysed in part 4 using Coded Information System Theory, where we argue that the most sophisticated information processing architectures are multi-purpose, open systems, which are a clear indication of design and not chance.

To finish this first article, click on "Nylon-eating bacteria: part 1—discovery and significance". Following that:

• Nylon-eating bacteria—part 2: refuting Ohno’s frame-shift theory
• Nylon-eating bacteria—part 3: current theory on how the modified genes arose
• Nylon-eating bacteria—part 4: interpretation according to Coded Information System theory
• Less taxing is this 2003 article, The adaptation of bacteria to feeding on nylon waste
• Finally, an update to that 2003 article, published in 2017, which I featured in the post "Nylonase Not Supporting Evolution".

On a side note, this is yet another refutation of the risible claim that creationist scientist are not "real" scientists — and the articles above from just two writing for Creation Ministries International.



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