Elephants are large animals with a high risk of developing cancer, but less than five

percent of captive elephants die from this disease. Research teams from the University of
Chicago and the University of Utah discovered that elephants contain 20 copies of p53 (a
master tumor suppressor gene that kills damaged cells) while humans only contain 1 copy.
Vincent Lynch is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago who continued research
with colleagues on p53 in elephants and found a former pseudogene called leukemia inhibitory
factor 6 (LIF6). A pseudogene is a nonfunctional version of a gene produced after they
duplicate. The p53 gene activates LIF6 to come alive and rapidly kill cells with damaged DNA,
hence its nickname zombie gene. It attacks the cell’s main energy source, the mitochondria, to
quickly erase the genetic mistake. Out of eight LIF genes only LIF6 is functional in humans, but
this gene hasn’t always been working. Using evolution this gene began to function about 25 to
30 million years ago around the time elephants began to increase in size. The method of
suppressing cancer cells have led to the size of the elephants today. Although being large helps
with predation, these animals have an extensive amount of cells which leads to a higher
probability that an error in cell division will occur. With the help of LIF6 the errors are maintained
at low rates. The cause for LIF6 to kill cells still remains uncertain, but future studies will be
conducted to find the answer.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180814173643.htm