http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13...mplex.html
You were saying.
Quote:It has been proposed that the flagellum originated from a protein export system. Over time, this system might have been adapted to attach a bacterium to a surface by extruding an adhesive filament. An ion-powered pump for expelling substances from the cell might then have mutated to form the basis of a rotary motor. Rotating any asymmetrical filament would propel a cell and give it a huge advantage over non-motile bacteria even before more spiral filaments evolved.
Finally, in some bacteria flagella became linked to an existing system for directing movement in response to the environment. In E. coli, it works by changing flagella rotation from anticlockwise to clockwise and back again, causing a cell to tumble and then head off in a new direction.
Without a time machine it may never be possible to prove that this is how the flagellum evolved. However, what has been discovered so far - that flagella vary greatly and that at least some of the components and proteins of which they are made can carry out other useful functions in the cells - show that they are not "irreducibly complex".
You were saying.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
