Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on nylon-eating bacteria.
In 1975 a team of Japanese scientists discovered a strain of Flavobacterium living in ponds containing waste water from a factory producing nylon that was capable of digesting certain byproducts of nylon-6 manufacture, such as, 6-aminohexanoate linear dimer, even though those byproducts had not existed prior to the invention of nylon in 1935. Further study revealed that the three enzymes the bacteria were using to digest the byproducts were novel, significantly different from any other enzymes produced by other Flavobacterium strains (or any other bacteria for that matter), and not effective on any other material other than the man made nylon byproducts. [1] This strain of Flavobacterium, Sp. K172, became popularly known as nylon eating bacteria, and the enzymes were collectively known as nylonase.
This piece explains why this bug is such a problem for the "creation science" movement.
2 comments:
Strange bacteria, lying in ponds, digesting nylon, is no basis for a system of belief. The supreme executive's power is displayed by transubstantiation in masses, not by some farcical aquatic flora.
These bacteria are>, however, proof that bacteria can develop novel functions. This amount of change is comparable to people growing wings.
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