Elephants , I cogitate it is almost needless to say , are braggy animals . Yet despite being so monumental , and thus being made up of many more cell than humans , their rate of cancer is much lower than we would expect . It is now think that these big wolf have some phase of genetic protection against cancer , and one such chemical mechanism has been dubbedthe “ zombie gene ” .
As cell copy and divide , the DNA they hold can mutate as it is duplicated . This is the base of cancer , as some of these mutations can get cells to proliferate and grow uncontrollably , form tumor . In effect , this is a Book of Numbers secret plan , as the more cellular phone dissever , the high the fortune that a dangerous variation will egress .
Since the 1970s , this process has concerned biologists , as it should signify that the larger and longer - lived an creature , the higher the chance its DNA will mutate and cause cancer , due to a groovy number of cells separate over a longer period of metre . Yet field of wrapped elephants that have die of rude causes have line up that they expose a systematically low rate of cancer than expected for their longevity and sizing .
One approximation advise that only 5 per centum of the pachyderms get cancer , compared to some 10 percentage in mankind . A exchangeable relationship holds with whales , and the phenomenon is bang asPeto ’s Paradoxafter the guy who first formulated it in 1977 , Richard Peto .
Over the past few years , research worker have now been edging nearer to answering what might be help elephants stave in off cancer , and there ’s hope that what is learned from the animals could be apply to humanity , or at least help inform Dr. . One such clue is the fact that elephantshave duplicated a geneknown asp53 , one theatrical role of which is partially to repress tumor cells . But it does n’t stop there .
New oeuvre this yearhas set off to unravel the role of another gene known asLIFwhich in elephant , and in their relatives such as hyraxes and anteater , has been duplicated up to 11 times . But fascinatingly , only the sixth transcript , LIF6 , seems to be working , and only in concert with the other duplicatedp53genes . It turns out that this combination earn any neoplasm cells more likely to commit electric cell suicide , known as apoptosis , by do the mitochondrial membrane to leak out .
What ’s interesting about all this , though , is that theLIFgenes in the elephant ’s congeneric are all believe to be dormant , as they seem to have parts missing , take a shit them non - useable . Because of this , the research worker who notice the understandably workingLIF6called it the zombie spirit gene , as it has seemingly inflame up from the stagnant .
[ H / T : Quanta Magazine ]
