A team lead by geneticist Christopher Gregg from the University of Utah conducted a study on elephant genes that discovered why elephants don’t get cancer, reported by News 4 Tucson. Elephants have “fixing” genes and strong immunity cells that focus on repair when a mutation or any type of damage in the DNA occurs. This results in a great preventative system to avoiding cancer. Humans have similarities, but the gene repair process is much different and not as effective in comparison to elephants.
Essentially, elephants’ mutated genes that would normally lead to cancer are fixed due to p53, a gene that is responsible for correcting these malfunctions. Schiffman, an oncologist, discovered back in 2015 that elephants had 20 copies of this “fixing” gene. Humans, on the other hand, only have one.
Additionally, Gregg and his team discovered a strong gene network called Fanconi anemia pathway that both elephants and humans have. When a mutation occurs in this pathway, it leads to cancer. Elephants avoid this because of their strong ability to change the mutation and correct it. Immune cells can repair mutations in DNA quickly which helps them avoid cancer.
Gregg and his team are looking into ways to expand on this and hopefully find more answers for humans. The team continues to study human and animal genomes side by side. They conducted a genome-wide association study, comparing different stretches of DNA from unique animals to that of humans. They looked at the how bat wings developed, why mole rats are blind, how dolphins can swim under water for so long, and more. Over time, these genomes developed very specifically for their species. The team essentially found new aspects of the human genome that could potentially be transformed over time that had parallels in these animals, giving them their unique characteristics.
