Zombie Gene Helps Elephants Outpace Cancer

Long ago, a “dead gene” buried in the genomes of groundhog-sized animals gained the ability to jerk back to life. The gene, called leukemia inhibitory factor 6 (LIF6), stirs when it is alerted to DNA damage. Then it expresses a protein that staggers around until it latches onto mitochondria and gnaws on them, spilling their contents and triggering cell death.As ghastly as LIF6’s function may sound, it helps suppress cancers caused by DNA damage. And so, LIF6 promoted the surviv