Giant Amoeba (Chaos chaos) ~ Do your genes define you?


It’s hard to imagine a single cell.  It’s harder still to imagine the intricate workings inside of a cell.  We have observed the behavior or red blood cells stacking up on each other like a row of dimes.  How do they do this?!  They don't have a nucleus, which means there is no 'brain' to guide it.  We have observed platelets budding off of each other when the blood stream couldn't make any more... a feat we once considered impossible.  How can a cell with no genetic material make another cell?!  What mysterious tiny treasures.  i like to think of cells as spherical, floating cities.  Imagine the city you live in.  Think of all the moving pieces inside the city: cars, buses, trains, people walking, letters moving, trucks carrying materials…Wrap it in a giant membrane-ball.  A single cell is more complex than this.

i get frustrated when people tell me that your genes determine who you are.  If there is one area we know the least about (aside from the bottom of the sea) it is genetics.  For instance, you can remove the one 'nurturing' gene from a mouse, and its behavior will change dramatically.  It will be unable to build a nest, unable to nurse its young, and often abandons its pups to die.  One gene codes for all of that behavior.  Yet, let's look at another behavior in biology.  That of a paramecium, an animal only one cell big!  If you watch a paramecium in your microscope, you might notice that when it bumps into something it backs up 4 body lengths, turns around to face a new direction, and presses on.  This 'avoidance behavior' is mitigated by no less than 45 genes.  45!!  So which organism is more complex?  How do we define complexity?

 In a recent study scientists trained mice to detest the scent of oranges.  The mice were then bred and gave birth to some pups.  This behavior was apparently passed down to its offspring, and from those offspring to their offspring, and so on to the 4th generation!  This phenomenon, a case of epigenetics, is also very mysterious.  There were no genetic traces of detesting-orange-flavored-things (i inherited the distaste of banana-flavored things apparently).

 The creature with the most genetic material ever recorded is a type of amoeba called the Giant Amoeba.  Like paramecium, this guy is only one cell big.  Yet it has the largest C-value (measure of genetic material) in the entire eukaryotic kingdom. Just to give you an idea of the enormity of this measurement: The bacteria E. intestinalis has a genome size of .0023 picograms. Humans have 3.5 pg. And the Giant Amoeba? A whopping 1,400 pg.

i am amazed at the mystery and beauty of this creature, though it spends most of its time just sitting in a blob, and it eats by blobbing onto other blobs.  What does all that genetic material code for?!  What does it DO?  

 1 Corinthians 6v9 says, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."  This verse, though short and simple, has proffered a wealth of encouragement to me over the years.  i come from interesting stock; and maybe you do too!  While genetics does have something to do with certain behaviors, how your nose is shaped, and how tall you are, it doesn't define your spirit.  In the words of George MacDonald (not CS Lewis!), "You do not have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body."  We are free to be whoever we want to be, and that is a gift!  Our hearts have been 'sanctified', cleaned and renewed by the Spirit of God.  You do not have to fear your future and who you will become.  Remember that His mercies are new every morning, and it is never too late to be renewed in mind and spirit with the help of our creator.


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