title: How the slot machine led biologists astray.
abstract: An extensive search, in the literature, for experiments in which a new enzyme did evolve, produced only two: the first by Campbell et al. in 1973; the second by Hall & Hartl in 1974. Since the experiments provide the only means of gaining a first hand view of how new enzymes evolve, they were scrutinized, minutely, with the objective of ascertaining whether the mutations involved were random or non-random. We report here that they were non-random. Further, with the benefit of hindsight, we highlight the weakness in the insights and the reasoning which produced the belief that new enzymes evolve purely by chance.
authors.forename: G Z
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Opadia-Kadima
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004798:Enzymes / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005823:Genetics / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D009154:Mutation; D011336:Probability; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects; D013449:Sulfonamides / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes; D013449:Sulfonamides