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User:Crevaner

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Revision as of 14:14, 20 April 2007 by imported>Heroe (+ cat)
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Genetics of 'Heroes':

Hero abilities are the product of a four gene complex. More specifically two genes, each of which has two forms, or alleles. To be a "Hero", a person must have at least one of each of the dominant alleles. A non-Hero may either have two recessive "a" alleles, or two recessive "b" alleles.

  • A - Hero gene 1 (dominant)
  • a - non-Hero (recessive)
  • B - Hero gene 2 (dominant)
  • b - non-Hero (recessive)

These combinations will make a Hero:

  • AABB
  • AaBB
  • AABb
  • AaBb

These combinations will make a non-Hero:

  • AAbb
  • Aabb
  • aaBB
  • aaBb
  • aabb

Two Hero parents can even have non-Hero children. These non-Heroes are produced by two Hero parents who have at least one recessive allele of the same gene:

AaBB x AaBB could produce

  • AABB (1/4 chance) = Hero
  • AaBB (1/2 chance) = Hero
  • aaBB ( 1/4 chance) = non-Hero

AABb x AABb could produce

  • AABB (1/4) = Hero
  • AABb (1/2) = Hero
  • AAbb (1/4) = non-Hero

However, the cross AABb x AaBB would produce all Hero offspring, since only one recessive allele of each gene could be inherited by any offspring:

  • AABB (1/4) = Hero
  • AABb (1/4) = Hero
  • AaBB (1/4) = Hero
  • AaBb (1/4) = Hero

The cross likely to produce the most non-Heroes from two Hero parents is, obviously, AaBb x AaBb, in which the offspring have a seven in sixteen chance of being a non-Hero.

Heroes born from two non-Heroes are produced if one parent has two "a" alleles and at least one "B" allele, while the other parent has two "b" alleles and at least one "A" allele. Because of this, they could produce Hero offspring:

AAbb x aaBB, for example, would produce all Hero offspring of the type AaBb.

Aabb x aaBb would produce Hero offspring in the proportion of one in four:

  • AaBb = Hero
  • Aabb = non-Hero
  • aaBb = non-Hero
  • aabb = non-Hero

Aabb x aaBB or AAbb x aabB would have a one in two chance of having Hero offspring.

Scattered throughout the supposedly unused "junk" portion of human DNA are HERVs (Human Endogenous Retroviruses). Endogenous retroviruses are RNA-based viruses that integrate their genetic material into the host's DNA, becoming part of the host's genome. Endogenous retroviruses exist in various forms in nearly all living things. Human Endogenous Retroviruses are the genetic fossils of ancient diseases, viruses that have entered into human DNA and persisted there in a dormant state for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. Thousands of human endogenous retroviruses lie semi-dormant in the human genome. Some of these retroviruses operate as species-level retroviral infections, over tens of thousands or millions of years. The vector of evolutionary change is an infectious human endogenous retrovirus.

Through communication by pheromones, viruses, and sexuality, and through incorporation, selection, and editing of complexes of genes by a linguistically based and computational DNA, the genomes of individuals become part of an extensive, species-scale neural network that solves the problems of evolutionary adaptation.

Within the human genome are many "mobile" genes that can copy themselves and transport other genes from one position to another. These are called transposons, or retrotransposons, and they may play a huge role in organizing and regulating our genome. Retroviruses bear a distinct resemblance to retrotransposons.

The specific HERV that causes human evolution contains information gathered from previous mutations of species on what is a beneficial mutation, and can express itself, if under stress. A new species or subspecies the result of a programmed reshuffling of genes induced by a transfer of coded genetic signals. Their characteristics are largely determined by a kind of "meta-evolutionary" response.

A genome is capable of reacting to the outside environment through our immune system and stress hormones and chemicals. Endogenous retroviruses and mobile genes are frequently activated by stress hormones. The immune system acts as a kind of radar, informing the genome about environmental changes-and the stress of changing external and even social conditions determines the changes.

Proposed changes in morphology are communicated through sexual activity and retroviruses and stored up in populations in a genetic "set-aside" area within each individual. A library of records of past adaptations is used to "judge" new phenotypic proposals within the genome, individually and across the species. When environmental challenges arise, morphological changes are enacted in "suites" of mutually advantageous mutations. Possible variations are selected and edited extensively based on evidence culled from the environment by the immune system. The retrovirus creates a phenotype more suited to handle the perceived stress in the environment. In a sense, the genome is making an "educated guess" based on past evolutionary experience, giving the new variety of humans a better statistical chance to succeed by mixing and matching and even expanding upon varieties of past traits-smell, scent production, communication abilities in both the brain and elsewhere.

The decision within a species to produce a new type of organism, or subtly modify aspects of an old one, is made using genomic rules which are similar to the rules that also allow clusters of neurons, including brains, to solve problems that confront organisms in the environment.

There's is essentially a master biological computer in each species, a processor that tots up possible beneficial mutations. It makes decisions about what, where, and when something will change...makes guesses based on success rates from past evolutionary experience. Stress related hormones can affect expression of genes and this evolutionary library of possible new forms responds to stress produced hormones. If enough members of a the species are under stress, they exchange signals, reach a kind of quorum, and this triggers a genetic algorithm that compares sources of stress with a list of adaptations, evolutionary responses.

Simply put, when a certain threshold degree of stress in a species is detected by a genome, that genome dials through its library of possibilities for enhancement, punches in a selection, and releases one of these viral junk DNA segments to make the adjustment. The released DNA segments produce proteins in large volumes of slightly different molecular design to ensure success and avoid immunological destruction.

Thus, speciation can occur in bursts rather than over geological time because of an endogenous retrovirus that can be transmitted laterally between individuals, leading to "punctuated equilibrium." In many instances, gentler modifications occur, within geologically separated populations that, for a time at least, can still interbreed.

Within Heroes, something very different happens. The Hero genes cause the production of a HERV-activating hormone that activates the retroviruses in a way that prevents them from being transmitted outside the body. Along with that...without the external genomic signals of other humans on the effects of the endogenous retrovirus, rather than a homogenous mutation to spread across the species, they bring forth an "individual evolution" that is specifically tailored for the person they reside in. Therefore every Hero develops a relatively unique mutation; their own special ability developed for them.

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