Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News
Elephants rarely succumb to cancer. That’s surprising given how large the animals grow and how long they can live, which should provide more opportunities for cells to morph into cancer cells.
A newly described gene that was brought back from the dead may take part in protecting the animals from the disease.A deep dive into elephants’ evolutionary history revealed a defunct gene called LIF6 that was somehow resurrected roughly 59 million years ago, around the time that elephants’ ancestors began to develop larger body sizes. Found only in elephants and their ancestral kin, LIF6 is triggered by another gene, TP53, to put cells out of commission at the first sign of damage before they turn cancerous, researchers report online August 14 in Cell Reports.
Previous research on elephants’ cancer-fighting powers focused on TP53, which most animals have. It was known that the gene makes a protein that detects cellular DNA damage and signals for a cell to repair itself or self-destruct, which also helps stop damaged cells from turning into cancer cells. In 2015, researchers found that elephants have 20 TP53 copies, compared with…
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