Uncoupling elephant TP53 and cancer

Fritz Vollrath

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.011

Uncoupling elephant TP53 and cancer

Trends Ecol Evol. 2023 Aug;38(8):705-707. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.011. Epub 2023 Jun 27.

Author

Fritz Vollrath¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK. Electronic address: fritz.vollrath@biology.ox.ac.uk.

PMID: 37385845
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.011

Abstract

Elephant testicles do not descend, with implications for sperm production being hot enough to compromise germline DNA replication/repair. Uniquely, elephants also possess 20 copies of a gene encoding for the p53 protein. Did elephants evolve multiplication of the TP53 gene complex to protect their germline rather than to fight cancer?

Keywords: Afrotheria; Elephantidae; Loxodonta; Peto’s paradox; TP53 retrogenes; cancer; climate change; germline; p53 isoforms; soma.

MeSH terms

Animals
Elephants* / genetics
Male
Neoplasms* / genetics
Semen
Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / genetics

Substances

Tumor Suppressor Protein p53