Perplexing Plant Proteins

It has been stated here before that evolution defies common sense — a suspension of disbelief similar to that employed when watching things like Doctor Who. We are told by scientists (and especially by under-educated popularizers of evolution) the just-so stories that something evolved, and to simply accept the assertion as fact. When some of us dare to actually stop and think about it, we consider the mechanisms of evolution, the intricacy of organisms, how many things must be in place at the same time &c., then we realize that evolution really does not add up.

morgueFile/mzacha

For example, most plants need sunlight to survive, yes? But they cannot have all of it. They have a UV protection system in their cells. Every aspect of it had to be in place from the beginning. If it was not, then the plants would have died off. Take a look:

A team of scientists led by researchers at the Scripps Research Institute and the University of Glasgow investigated the marvelous mechanism by which plant cells detect harmful UV-B radiation and then send signals that activate cellular UV-B protection regimes. Without UV detection and prevention, and without all the biochemicals for photosynthesis, plants would have long ago died.

A protein in plants called UVR8 responds to light in just the UV-B range. The protein consists of two identical halves that automatically link to one another just before light hits them. Investigators learned that when UV-B light hits a particular amino acid near the center of the dual complex to change its electrical charges, the halves separate and activate the protein.

You can read the rest of "Plant UV Detectors Could Not Have Evolved", in context, here.