The “Linkage Blocks” Problem

• Linkage blocks are spans of about 30,000 nucleotides that do not recombine (clusters that never break apart)

• For forward evolution to occur good and bad mutations must be separated

• Most mutations are bad

• Therefore rare good mutations will always be linked to many bad mutations within its linkage cluster

• Therefore, every “building block” of the genome (every one of the approx. 100,000 linkage blocks in man) is degenerating