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Origins Issues
ALL OUT WAR IN THE CORNFIELD
by Frank Sherwin
A lazy summer day in an Illinois cornfield is the setting of an
unbelievable altercation involving chemical warfare, field-wide
alarm calls, and some of the most graphic violence seen on any
battlefield. The battle rages. And yet, there are no sounds in
this cornfield, save for the rustling of leaves and the
occasional bird call.
One of the many "warriors" is a caterpillar that has a
voracious appetite for corn leaves. As it munches on the leaves
the corn plant responds by releasing a range of organic compounds
called volatiles. Such compounds have a number of functions
including warning other plants that in turn activate their own
defense genes. Volatiles also attract parasitoid wasps. These
predatory insects follow the biochemical signal right down the
individual plant under attack. Once there, she finds the
caterpillar and injects eggs under its skin. In due time the
larvae develop and consume the host from the inside out.
But what if the corn leaf is just physically damaged due to wind
or hailstones? Will the plant still release volatiles? No. The
Creator designed the plant to recognize compounds in the
caterpillar's saliva as it is eating the leaf, in this way false
alarms are avoided. It is this chemical plus the wounding of the
plant that starts what scientists call a signal transduction
pathway in the corn. The complex process results in the
production and release of volatiles. One must ask, is this the
result of nothing more than time, natural processes, and chance,
or a Creator's blueprint?
The fact that this battle hardly describes the "very
good" creation that God completed at the end of the Creation
Week has not been lost to ICR scientists. But it wasn't always
like this. Like so many other predator/prey relationships, the
above description reveals the tragic corruption of the creation
due to sin. Let's remember that according to Scripture, plants
are not alive as people and animals are. In the beginning plants
were created as food for truly living plants and animals. In the
very short time prior to the Fall, we speculate that parasitoid
wasps did not engage in hunting for caterpillars (a clear
predator/prey relationship). Instead, the wasps may have injected
their eggs into protein-rich plants. Caterpillars probably fed
from plants as they do today, as doing so would not contravene
the "no death before the Fall" teaching. A variety of
plant secretions probably directed the insects what to eat and
what not to eat on the individual plant before the Fall and in so
doing probably assisted the plant in a symbiotic relationship.
Plant scientists are only now beginning to understand the
complexity of these plant chemical defenses.
The complex process of signal transduction may have changed
slightly after the Fall. In the Garden, caterpillars and wasps
were herbivores and fed from plants, the wasp being
"called" to the plant by volatiles secreted due to the
caterpillar's feeding. After the Fall when God cursed the earth,
the wasp had to seek a more protein-rich source: the caterpillar.
How? Like evolutionists, creation scientists can only speculate.
Plants with their signal transduction pathway could generate a
hypersensitive response against the wasp by way of R (resistance)
proteins produced by a number of activated R genes after the
Fall. The wasp, deterred by the production of protective
molecules throughout the plant, turns to the caterpillar for its
repository of eggs. The Creator equipped each with the necessary
ability to adapt.
Reprinted with permission from "Acts & Facts,"
p. 5. ©2005 by ICR (Institute for Creation Research). P.O. Box
2667, El Cajon, CA 92021.
TSS
September
/ October 2005 The Sabbath Sentinel
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