The CRS Ekinds Research Initiative: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Headed from Here
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The Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism Volume 8 Print Reference: Pages 185-190 Article 25 2018 The CRS eKINDS research initiative: Where we have been and where we are headed from here Jean K. Lightner Liberty University Kevin Anderson Creation Research Society Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/icc_proceedings Part of the Biology Commons DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their work. Please address questions to [email protected]. Browse the contents of this volume of The Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism. Recommended Citation Lightner, J.K., and K. Anderson. 2018. The CRS eKINDS research initiative: Where we have been and where we are headed from here. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism, ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 185–190. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. Lightner, J.K., and K. Anderson. 2018. The CRS eKINDS research initiative: Where we have been and where we are headed from here. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism, ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 185–190. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. THE CRS eKINDS RESEARCH INIATIVE: WHERE WE HAVE BEEN AND WHERE WE ARE HEADED FROM HERE Jean K. Lightner, 11 Meadowlawn Dr., Mentor, OH 44060, [email protected] Kevin Anderson, Van Andel Creation Research Center, 6801 N. Hwy 89, Chino Valley, AZ 86323, [email protected] ABSTRACT The eKINDS research initiative began in 2016 in an effort to accelerate research on numerous outstanding questions related the diversification and speciation of plants and animals. The research encompasses three broad topics: a) identification of created kinds, b) identification of mechanisms that drive diversification and speciation within created kinds, and c) detailed analysis of individual created kinds in an attempt to propose a robust natural history that delineates key events as organisms reproduced and filled the earth following the time of the Flood. As part of the eKINDS project, a new statistical tool is being developed to take advantage of the steadily increasing pools of molecular data. It compares expressed proteins, which typically cluster organisms into discreet groups, suggesting that members of a group may belong to a single kind. This method has been applied to insects and fungi. Additionally, analysis has begun on primates and other vertebrates. There are plans to use it on more taxa as proteomic data accumulates. The eKINDS project is also investigating the possibility that designed mechanisms exist for the generation of adaptive alleles. Some work has been done to explore the significance of founding events in post-Flood diversification and speciation. Other mechanisms are slated to be explored as well. Several avian kinds are being investigated in an attempt to piece together key aspects of their natural history. Our hope is that, by God’s grace, more researchers will be mobilized to address these critical questions so we, as believers, can make substantial contributions to science and demonstrate the robustness of the biblical creation model. KEY WORDS Speciation, diversification, adaptation, evolution, post-Flood, baraminology, mutation, eKINDS INTRODUCTION The acronym eKINDS stands for examination of kinds in natural 2013). diversification and speciation. This Creation Research Society For a variety of reasons, hybrid data may be unavailable for (CRS) research initiative was developed to help resolve numerous specific organisms. The absence of hybrid data, itself, does nothing outstanding questions surrounding the post-Flood repopulation of to indicate if a species belongs to a particular kind. Sometimes the earth by plants and animals. These questions can be broadly there is a lack of mating opportunity, or hybridization may occur grouped as follows: 1) Which organisms today are descended but we have not observed it. However, it is also recognized that from the same created kind?, 2) What mechanisms are involved in the ability to hybridize can be lost over time. This can be due to creating the diversity that we see within created kinds?, and 3) Can regulatory shifts, as seen in the house mouse (Larson et al. 2016), we trace the natural history of various animal kinds as they moved and may affect life history traits including food preferences, as from the Ark and repopulated the earth? seen in mosquitoes (Byrne and Nichols 1999). To help ascertain the While considerable work has been done in the last decade to baramin status of species when hybridization data is not available, estimate the kinds of animals that were present on the Ark, it has statistical tests, i.e., Baraminic Distance Correlation (BDC) and highlighted the reality that there is still considerably more work yet Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), have been developed. There is to do (Wood 2008; Lightner 2012; Lightner 2013; Hennigan 2013a, clearly value to these tests. However, as with any statistical method, b; Hennigan 2014 a, b; Ross 2014; Hennigan 2015). Hybridization they have their limitations (Lightner et al. 2011). Most notably, between two species is generally considered to be the most they rely on the availability of suitable datasets for analysis. reliable way to determine that both descended from the same kind. This is because reproduction is an enormously complex process Many of the recent works attempting to estimate the number of that requires compatibility on multiple levels, suggesting that kinds in various vertebrate taxa have defaulted to the level of the reproduction could not occur between two organisms unless they family simply because insufficient data was available to make were specifically designed for this possibility. Thus, hybridization a case for the kind to fall elsewhere along current taxonomic indicates holistic similarity (continuity) suggesting both species boundaries (Lightner 2012; Lightner 2013; Hennigan 2013a, b; belong to the same kind (Wood et al. 2003; Lightner et al. 2011). Hennigan 2014 a, b; Ross 2014; Hennigan 2015). Since molecular Hybrid data has shown continuity between different genera in a data is rapidly accumulating for many species, the eKINDS project family, and in some cases between multiple families to the point is sponsoring research to develop a statistical tool that can use this of showing continuity in an entire order (Lightner 2012; Lightner data to make initial estimates of created kinds. This approach 185 Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org Lightner and Anderson ◀ The CRS eKINDS research initiative ▶ 2018 ICC involves comparing all cataloged proteins expressed in different for the global Flood of Noah’s time. Creationists are in a position species to known orthology groups, and grouping organisms based to propose a more robust natural history of life, based upon both on similar orthology content (O’Micks 2017). biblical history and physical evidence from creation. As we For those groups where sizable monobaramins have been identified attempt to do this, we should continue to uncover evidence that based on hybrid data, it is clear that considerable diversity exists. At substantiates (or possibly modifies) our current understanding of the lay level, creationists have often attributed this to recombination kinds, and how God designed them to reproduce and fill the earth. of created alleles, mutation (which is often attributed to random IDENTIFYING KINDS error), and natural selection. Certainly these mechanisms were The molecular based baraminology method the eKINDS project has in operation, but numerous lines of evidence suggest these are been developing measures the similarity in expressed orthologous insufficient to solely account for many of the patterns we observe protein content (using the Jaccard Coefficient Value, or JCV) today (Rupe and Sanford 2013; Lightner 2015; Anderson 2016). between species and assigns them to individual baramins. It is For example, many adaptive alleles are rare and only advantageous based on the assumption that different created kinds were likely in specific environments. This suggests they are not created endowed with a different array of protein coding genes, which have alleles, but arose rapidly when a particular trait was needed by remained largely conserved throughout history. It assumes the organism. Neo-Darwinian mechanisms (random mutation and similarity in phenotype has been retained within baramins, and an natural selection) are not genetically adequate for explaining this analogous set of core proteins underlies this similarity. The method pattern (Lightner 2014; Lightner 2015). has been applied to various prokaryotic groups, and clustering based on orthologous proteins was found. It should be noted that The eKINDS project is investigating alternative mechanisms for the the term “orthologous” is used for simplicity, but the evolutionary production of new, potentially adaptive alleles in vertebrates, such interpretation that similar protein coding genes