Mystery of Genome

193 It is indeed conceivable that macro-alterations caused by homeo-box mutations might sometimes be beneficial. It is even conceivable that they might sometimes be beneficial in a substantial way. But how often would this realistically happen, and could such point mutations really counteract genome-wide degeneration?

In terms of a jet manual, a single misspelling might convert the command “repeat loop 3 times” to “repeat loop 33 times”.

Or a misspelling might convert the command “attach assembly 21 into body part A” into “attached assembly 21 into body part Z”. These typographical errors could result in very profound changes in the shape of the airplane – but would they ever be beneficial? If they were beneficial, could they effectively offset the loss of information arising from millions of other misspellings – degrading all the other components of the plane?

We can acknowledge that, theoretically, homeo-box mutations might be modulated in useful ways. However, the actual examples given are in fact profoundly deleterious.

The antennae-leg in the fly is actually just a monstrosity – it neither acts as an antennae nor a leg. The fly with the extra set of wings can not use them (they are not attached to muscles or nerves). Those useless appendages only interfere with the functioning of the normal pair of wings, and the mutant flies can barely fly. It should be obvious that some random changes within any instruction manual will produce gross aberrations within the finished product. But would this in any way support the idea that mega-beneficial mutations are happening? Would this suggest that one such macromutation could increase total genomic information by as much as 1% - equal to 30 million nucleotides? Would it suggest that one such a mutation could counteract the degenerative effects of millions of mutations happening throughout the rest of the genome? Obviously not!

In conclusion, as much as they might help prop up the Primary Axiom, mega-beneficial mutations can not honestly be invoked.