Elephants are known for their majestic size and resilience,
but also for their long lives. In fact, elephants live longer than any other
land mammal, except for man, only beating them by less than a decade. However,
elephants have 100 times more cells than humans do. This provides ample
opportunity for cancer-causing mutations to occur. However, only 5% of
elephants die of cancer, whereas up to 25% of humans do. This lead to the
hypothesis that elephants’ bodies must have evolved a way to suppress
cancer.
Scientists analyzed the DNA of both African and Asian
elephants and discovered that both species had 20 copies of P53 gene, which is
known to have tumor-suppressing qualities. In comparison, humans only have one
copy of the P53 gene. Moreover, the genes of elephants’ smaller ancestors
showed only a few copies of the P53 gene. This implies that as elephants
evolved, their genetic code developed more copies of the P53 gene. However,
although this is an interesting discovery, it does not answer all of
scientists’ questions about the P53 gene.
I think
that it is awesome that medical scientists may find cancer-fighting tactics
from other members of the animal kingdom! Since it seems that the high amount
of P53 gene in elephants is coordinated with their large size, it makes me
wonder if this relationship of having natural cancer-fighting abilities transfers
over to the genomes of other large mammals, such as whales. If that is the
case, then those animals should be looked at too, since they may have their own
ways of combatting cancer that could be useful in humans.
I believe it could also prove beneficial for the elephants, as this breakthrough could help scientists battle cancer it would also push for better conservation for elephants
ReplyDeleteI love elephants and never knew about their gene that has the possibility to suppress cancer. It is interesting to think that humans only have one copy of this gene, while elephants have 20 copies of it. This discovery could hopefully open more doors to figure out why they have that many copies of the gene. Maybe humans will be the next to evolve and obtain more copies of P53 gene that suppresses tumors!
ReplyDeleteI love elephants and never knew about their gene that has the possibility to suppress cancer. It is interesting to think that humans only have one copy of this gene, while elephants have 20 copies of it. This discovery could hopefully open more doors to figure out why they have that many copies of the gene. Maybe humans will be the next to evolve and obtain more copies of P53 gene that suppresses tumors!
ReplyDeleteTo have so many copies of one gene is interesting. What if there were other genes that had more than one that could help with a genetic condition? I wonder how the elephants have evolved to have so many copies of p53 if their ancestors only had a few. Personally I don't see how this could really help humans specially if we already have the gene, unless we do some sort of gene editing, which than brings ups some ethical questions. Overall however it is an intriguing area to research further.
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