Michael Behe's (NEW) Home page

Michael J. Behe, Ph.D.
Behe picture
About my research...

DNA was long regarded as a functionally inert molecule-a long punchtape that was acted upon by proteins, which did the really interesting work. The discovery of Z DNA in the late 1970s changed the way in which we perceive polydeoxynucleotides. Now it is realized that these polymers can act, as well as be acted upon. Further research into DNA structure showed a wealth of alternative conformations available to selected sequences: left hand helical structures, hairpins, triple and quadruple strands. There is, however, a problem in assessing the significance of the alternative forms: most of them were first seen, and have been subsequently studied, in synthetic molecules. Thus the danger is that, although physically interesting, they were physiologically irrelevant. The task of proving their relevance in vivo has been daunting, since candidate sequences could flip back and forth between the B form and alternative forms. Since the large scale sequencing projects have begun, another way to gauge the relevance of alternative conformations is available: check genomic sequences for the accumulation or repression of sequences required for an alternative form. The overabundance of a sequence template that is known to be able to exist in a non-B form is strong a priori evidence that the conformation in fact has a role to play in the cell. In the past year and a half an enormous increase in the sequence database has enabled us to scan tens of millions of nucleotides from a number of eukaryotes. This work has produced several striking results, and enabled us to focus our attention on those nonstandard conformations which appear to actually be used in organisms. The most obvious candidates, and the ones we focus our attention on, are the oligoadenosine and oligoguanosine tracts that are very strongly overrepresented in human and C. elegans DNA, respectively. Despite early reports that oligoadenosine tracts could not accommodate nucleosomes, our laboratory has shown that, not only can such tracts be accommodated (1), but that at higher temperatures (and probably under other conditions which would disrupt the spine of hydration in oligoadenosine tracts) nucleosomes bind the tracts more strongly than other sequences (2,3). Therefore we hypothesize that such tracts can be used as phasing elements. To test this hypothesis we are constructing plasmids containing multiple adenosine tracts spaced by distances up to a thousand base pairs, and examining the phasing of reconstituted nucleosomes on the plasmid DNA compared to DNA without such tracts. Oligoguanosine tracts have been shown to have the startling ability to form quadruplex polynucleotide structures and polyguanosine has been known for decades to associate to form very strong, multistranded complexes. In general, oligoguanosine tracts are rare in eukaryotes; most eukaryotic DNA sequenced so far is AT-rich, and guanosine tracts longer than 10 in a row are found infrequently. However, our recent search (4) has shown that such tracts are startlingly common in C. elegans. We hypothesize that the tracts are being used as structural elements, and are looking for evidence that bears on this. The association of oligoguanosine tracts in plasmid DNA is being examined as a function of supercoiling density. Additionally, a search is being conducted for proteins from C. elegans that bind specifically to oligoguanosine tracts.

1. Puhl, H.L., Gudibande, S.R. & Behe, M.J. (1991) Poly[d(A T)] and other synthetic polydeoxynucleotides containing oligoadenosine tracts form nucleosomes easily. J. Mol. Biol. 222, 1149-1160.
2. Puhl, H.L. & Behe, M.J. (1995) Poly[dA] poly [dT] forms very stable nucleosomes at higher temperatures. J. Mol. Biol. 245, 559-567.
3. Mahloogi, H. & Behe, M.J. (1997) Oligoadenosine tracts favor nucleosome formation. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 235, 663-668.
4. Behe, M.J. (1998) Tracts of separated, alternating, and mixed adenosine and cytidine residues in the genomes of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. DNA Sequence, in press.

Michael Behe's Home Page (older version!)

Created on Thu Jul 28 10:44:26 EDT 1994 by Lehigh's Web Server.

To contact me, send e- mail to mjb1@Lehigh.EDU.

Postal Address:
     Department of Biological Sciences
     Iacocca Hall, Building 111
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     Bethlehem, PA 18015

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Lehigh's Biological Sciences Department.

Michael J. Behe

Associate Professor of
Biochemistry

                         Department of Biological
                         Sciences
                         Lehigh University
On-Line Articles
Lecture Reports
Michael Behe Schedule
Book: Darwin's Black Box
Audio Tape: Intro. to DBB
Examples: IrreducibleComplexity
Behe Responds to Critics

December 19, 1997 Firing Line Debate Articles

Sunday Morning -- Michael Behe

Posted by Stephen B. Coulson on June 23, 1997 at 01:17:39:

What a shame Michael Behe was given a forum to espouse his views on a
subject which is not his field of study without the benefit of refutation
by someone who actually knows better.

Darwin Under the Microscope
By Michael J. Behe

Michael J. Behe, associate professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, is the author of "Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution."

The Cydonia Update - March, 1997

Darwin's Coffin

In the 1980s, Dr. Michael Denton, an microbiological researcher, wrote a
ground-breaking book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. In one prominent passage, he
wrote of what a living cell would look like if it were expanded to the size of a city:

     . . . We would see all around us, in every direction we looked, all sorts of
     robot-like machines. We would notice that the simplest of the functional
     components of the cell, the protein molecules, were astonishingly complex
     pieces of molecular machinery, each one consisting of about three thousand
     atoms arranged in highly organized 3-D spatial conformation. We would
     wonder even more as we watched the strangely purposeful activities of these
     weird molecular machines.

Wonder no more, because Denton's molecular biological critique of evolution is now
joined by Michael Behe, a biochemist whose Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical
Challenge to Evolution finishes the intellectual decapitation of the evolutionary
crusade. Darwin himself, Behe contends, threw down the gauntlet when he wrote
long ago:

     If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could
     not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight
     modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.

And so Behe introduces the concept of 'irreducible complexity.'.....

Under the Covers: Darwin's Black Box by Behe

DARWIN'S BLACK BOX: THE BIOCHEMICAL CHALLENGE TO EVOLUTION
by Michael Behe
Free Press 8/96; $25.00 hardcover; ISBN 0684827549

Several of the books I have recommended on the subject of evolution(ism) in the
past have been hard to get hold of; Michael Behe's "Darwin's Black Box" is
available at Borders. Likewise, evolutionists on the net have claimed that Phillip
Johnson and Alexander MeBane lack proper "credentials" to write on
evolution(ism); Behe is a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University.

Review of Michael Behe's book by Gert Korthof

Darwin's Black Box
Michael Behe shows why Phillip Johnson is wrong in claiming that Darwin created a nonfalsifiable theory !

Reviews & comments on "Darwin's Black Box" by Robert Shapiro and Peter van Inwagen.

Virtually all serious scientists accept the truth of Darwin's theory of
evolution. While the fight for its acceptance has been a long and difficult one,
after a century of struggle among the cognoscenti the battle is over....

Useful bookmarks on Science and Christianity

$cribbed from SCICHR-L's site$ Excellent sites devoted to the dialogue between science and theology have been proliferating like rabbits lately, and in the near future (probably early March) I will be revising this page extensively.

These bookmarks are given in no particular order except that I consider the earlier ones more useful than the later ones. Organizations to which I belong are highlighted.

Darwin Under the Microscope
By Michael J. Behe

Michael J. Behe, associate professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University,is the author of "Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution."

The Real Issue

The Evolution of a Skeptic

An Interview with Dr. Michael Behe, biochemist and author of recent best-seller, Darwin's Black Box

BookWire Home ||| Search BookWire ||| BookWire Index ||| Authors on the Highway or select a bookseller from the BookWire Bookseller Index.
Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution

by Michael J. Behe

Hardcover The Free Press, ISBN 0684827549
$25.00 Can$34.00

Senior Fellow Michael Behe

Articles by Micheal Behe and reviews of Darwin's Black Box

Michael J. Behe is Associate Professor of Chemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. His current research, which is being funded by the Natiuonal Institute of Health, focuses on the structure of nucleic acids and the properties of histone proteins. In addition to publishing over 35 articles in refereed biochemical journals, he has just published a book titled Darwin's Black Box (The Free Press, 1996) that discusses the implications for evolutionary theory of what he calls "irreducibly complex" biochemical systems. He has already presented some of his findings on this topic at the State University of New York, Stony Brook and Cambridge University.

Firing Line Special Debate

This Month's Episodes:
Resolved: The Evolutionists Should Acknowledge Creation

           William F. Buckley Jr. heads the panel arguing for the
           resolution with Phillip E. Johnson, professor of law at the
           University of California; Michael Behe, professor at Lehigh
           University; and author David Berlinski. Arguing against the
           resolution are Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans
           United for Separation of Church and State; Eugenie Scott,
           executive director of the National Center for Science
           Education; Michael Ruse, professor at the University of
           Guelph in Ontario, Canada; and Kenneth Miller, professor
           of biology at Brown University.

	Behe's Empty Box
	Reviews and Criticisms of Michael Behe's book: *"Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution"*...and the hypothesis of Intelligent Design

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