Leikauf et al. identified Elk1 and other candidate genes related to enhanced susceptibility to ALI in mice using a genetic/genomic approach (Leikauf et al. 2011) .Significantly, the upregulation of G-protein-coupled receptor 43 has been shown to diminish the inflammatory response and apoptosis, thereby mitigating ALI in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mice through the modulation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase/Elk1 pathway (Xu et al. 2022), indicating that Elk1 performs a role in ALI/ARDS. The gene discussed is ELK1; the disease is acute respiratory distress syndrome.