Transmission of devil facial-tumour disease

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Abstract

The Tasmanian devil, a large carnivorous Australian marsupial, is under threat from a widespread fatal disease in which a malignant oral-facial tumour obstructs the animal's ability to feed. Here we show that the chromosomes in these tumours have undergone a complex rearrangement that is identical for every animal studied. In light of this remarkable finding and of the known fighting behaviour of the devils, we propose that the disease is transmitted by allograft, whereby an infectious cell line is passed directly between the animals through bites they inflict on one another.

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Genetic diversity and population structure of Tasmanian devils, the largest marsupial carnivore.

Menna Jones, David Paetkau, Eli Geffen … (2004)

Genetic diversity and population structure were investigated across the core range of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus laniarius; Dasyuridae), a wide-ranging marsupial carnivore restricted to the island of Tasmania. Heterozygosity (0.386-0.467) and allelic diversity (2.7-3.3) were low in all subpopulations and allelic size ranges were small and almost continuous, consistent with a founder effect. Island effects and repeated periods of low population density may also have contributed to the low variation. Within continuous habitat, gene flow appears extensive up to 50 km (high assignment rates to source or close neighbour populations; nonsignificant values of pairwise FST), in agreement with movement data. At larger scales (150-250 km), gene flow is reduced (significant pairwise FST) but there is no evidence for isolation by distance. The most substantial genetic structuring was observed for comparisons spanning unsuitable habitat, implying limited dispersal of devils between the well-connected, eastern populations and a smaller northwestern population. The genetic distinctiveness of the northwestern population was reflected in all analyses: unique alleles; multivariate analyses of gene frequency (multidimensional scaling, minimum spanning tree, nearest neighbour); high self-assignment (95%); two distinct populations for Tasmania were detected in isolation by distance and in Bayesian model-based clustering analyses. Marsupial carnivores appear to have stronger population subdivisions than their placental counterparts. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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Characteristic chromosomal abnormalities in biopsies and lymphoid-cell lines from patients with Burkitt and non-Burkitt lymphomas.

U Haglund, Sandra Nilsson, Sebastian G Klein … (1976)

The karyotypes of cells from 10 Burkitt lymphoma (BL) biopsies, eight cell lines established from BL and nine cell lines from non-BL sources were studied by chromosome banding techniques. With the exception of the BL-derived cell lines BJAB, GC-BJAB, Maku and U-8691 all biopsies and lines of Burkitt origin contained an extra band at the distal region of the long arm of one chromosome 14. An extra band on chromosome 14 was also found in cells of one non-BL biopsy, in cells from a lymphosarcoma-derived cell line and in a long-established cell line derived from the pleural exudate of a patient with Hodgkin's disease. A distal region at the long arm of one chromosome 8 was missing in all metaphase figures of good technical quality in the same material. The size, morphology and stain-ability of the missing region corresponded fairly well to the extra region at chromosome 14. We therefore suggest that the chromosome 14 marker represents a translocation between chromosomes 8 and 14,t (8q-; 14q+). The translocation was present neither in lymphocytes of the peripheral blood of five Burkitt patients nor in five lymphoblastoid cell lines of non-BL origin. Trisomy 7 was found in two of the 10 BL biopsies, in two BL-derived cell lines, in one non-BL biopsy, in two lymphosarcoma-derived cell lines and in one cell line derived from a patient with Hodgkin's disease.

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Transplant tumor registry: donor related malignancies.

A Roza, P SPAIN, John W. Marks … (2002)

Transmission of donor malignancies has been intermittently reported since the early days of clinical transplantation. The incidence of United States donor related malignancies has not previously been documented. All donor related malignancies reported to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing from 4/1/94-7/1/01 in a cohort of 34,933 cadaveric donors and 108,062 recipients were investigated by contacting the transplant centers to verify that the reported tumors were of donor origin. Time and mode of discovery, as well as graft and patient outcome, were determined. The status of other recipients from the donor was investigated. A total of 21 donor related malignancies from 14 cadaveric and 3 living donors were reported. Fifteen tumors were donor transmitted and 6 were donor derived. Transmitted tumors are malignancies that existed in the donor at the time of transplantation. Derived tumors are de novo tumors that develop in transplanted donor hematogenous or lymphoid cells after transplantation. The cadaveric donor related tumor rate is 0.04% (14 of 34,993). The donor related tumor rate among transplanted cadaveric organs is 0.017% (18 of 108,062). Among patients developing donor related malignancies, the overall mortality rate was 38%, with that of transmitted tumors being 46% and derived tumors being 33%. The cadaveric donor related tumor mortality rate is 0.007% (8 of 108,062). The United States incidence of donor related tumors is extremely small. The donor related tumor death rate is also extremely small, particularly when compared with waiting-list mortality.