Why is cancer so rare in elephants? They might thank their 'zombie gene'
by Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
Aug 15, 2018
3 minutes
Maybe it's the elephant's genes that never forget.
In addition to having great memories, elephants are known for having a very low incidence of cancer. In what might seem a wild mash-up of the SyFi channel and National Geographic, new research has uncovered a surprising factor that protects elephants against the dread disease: a gene that had gone dormant in their mammalian ancestors, but got turned back on as their evolving bodies grew ever bigger.
Scientists call it
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