3 ms·

How do you mean? It's not random in the "uniform random distribution" sense but it's certainly the product of a stochastic process (evolution)?

• dogma1138 10y ago
  Evolution is not a stochastic process, even without newer models like CRISPR where we know bacteria and other organisms seek very specific genetic material and integrate it into their own genome; evolution is governed by natural selection and your DNA has a lot of tricks under it's belt. Your DNA was meticulously constructed by billions of years of evolution and that is not by chance since there are processes that construct DNA which are not based on "random mutation", you can take in foreign DNA, activate and deactivate genes put in spacers move base pairs from coding and non-coding DNA, modify gene expression and repetition and tons of other tricks and this all happens through a process not by chance. If you think about evolution only in terms of random mutations which are filtered out through natural selection you throw away most of what we've learned about biology in the past 50 or so years, in fact random mutation is likely not have been workhorse of evolution especially in rapidly reproducing organisms. Microorganisms edit their DNA and they do it at a very fast pace, this is why you can have bacteria developing resistance to drugs without even reproducing since they start seeking out resistive genes in their non-coding DNA and in their environment (plasmids and phages) as soon as they are exposed to antibiotics, they can integrate them into their coding DNA activate those genes and begin making the needed proteins and even rebuild their cell membranes if needed.