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Barbara Kingsolver in the article titled “A Fist in the Eye of God” has tried to explain how the process of evolution gives rise to genetic diversity, and why the genetic engineering tools should not be used to manipulate genes. She has used a humming bird as the media to explain how genetic traits have passed since antiquity from one generation to the next. The aim of this essay is to understand the contribution of Darwin and Vavilov, along with the underpinnings of genetic diversity to bring about the organisms’ survival over time.
The “trigger.” The “trigger” that tells the humming bird how to build the nest is the genetic map or trait that has been transferred from one to the next generation of the humming bird over evolutionary time scale. This ‘trigger’ is switched on at the right time, when the situations become favorable for budding, courtship, and incubation (Kingsolver).
Darwin’s observations. The four things that Charles Darwin noticed were:
- Every living organism will have to produce more offsprings or seeds that can actually survive the harsh and testing environments to reach the growth phase of adulthood
- There is differences or variations among these offsprings
- The traits are inheritable and are transferred from one generation to another over time
- The advantageous traits are helpful in the organisms’ survival, and in the perpetuity of the race. Also the ratio of incidence of useful traits to harmful traits tends to increase in the population with time.
Implications of ‘separate destiny.’ The phrase “…every grain of wheat holds inside its germ a slightly separate destiny” means that there would be genetic variations among the individual progenies. They are endowed with slightly different genetic content, which would be helpful in survival in one or more unfavorable environmental conditions, thus assisting in continuation of the plant race (Kingsolver).
Mechanics of genetic diversity. Diversity is maintained in natural systems by means of natural selection, and dependent on genetic variations among the individuals. Sex, genetic combinations during meiosis and the environmentally attuned fitness allows for diversity and survival. Every individual has a slight difference with another with respect to gene content, and this allows certain traits to have an advantage over deleterious ones.
Over time, the individuals with advantageous alleles survive, and diversify. Similarly, in a garden, the seeds with harmful alleles are wiped out in a specific environmental condition, and the plant with advantageous allele survives to reach adulthood. Thus, the variations allow for natural selection to operate in an evolutionary process, and leads to diversity and survival of the races (Kingsolver).
Importance of survival. “Survival carries things forward and death doesn’t” denotes how important survival is. The survival ensures the continuity of the race through the means of sex and reproduction, and allows the traits to be inherited. While the death means that the contribution of the individual is over as far as the racial perpetuity is concerned.
Vavilov’s contribution and the ‘magic’ wheat problem. Vavilov during his worldwide search looked for primitive crop varieties, and regions where variations were found, and thus identified centers of origins of cultivated plants. He could indicate where agriculture had originated on the basis of primitive crop races, and their spread.
The problem with ‘magic’ wheat is that it is neither pest nor drought resistant, though it is nutritive in content. The farmers have to invest a lot of money in ensuring its survival in tougher settings as it lacks advantageous genes for those specific conditions (Kingsolver).
Works Cited
Kingsolver, Barbara. “A Fist In The Eye of God.” Motherearthnews.com. Mother Earth News, August/September 2002. Web.
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