2016/08/30 by Brendan Epstein, Menna E. Jones, Rodrigo Hamede +7 · 2 citations
Medicine · Immunology and Microbiology · Environmental Science · #Veterinary Oncology Research #Microbial infections and disease research #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Wildlife disease #Biology #Disease #Immune system #Evolutionary biology #Cancer #Infectious disease (medical specialty) #Extinction (optical mineralogy) #Wildlife #Genetics #Zoology #Ecology #Medicine #Pathology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms12684
openalex publication_date 2016/08/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Although cancer rarely acts as an infectious disease, a recently emerged transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) is virtually 100% fatal. Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) has swept across nearly the entire species' range, resulting in localized declines exceeding 90% and an overall species decline of more than 80% in less than 20 years. Despite epidemiological models that predict extinction, populations in long-diseased sites persist. Here we report rare genomic evidence of a rapid, parallel evolutionary response to strong selection imposed by a wildlife disease. We identify two genomic regions that contain genes related to immune function or cancer risk in humans that exhibit concordant signatures of selection across three populations. DFTD spreads between hosts by suppressing and evading the immune system, and our results suggest that hosts are evolving immune-modulated resistance that could aid in species persistence in the face of this devastating disease.