WIKIMEDIA, KERESHDuring the last 20 years, a contagious cancer has decimated Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) populations. Cancer cells, which are spread by biting, grow deadly tumors on the faces and mouths of the aggressive marsupials. Because devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) has been observed in almost all known populations and is nearly 100 percent fatal, epidemiological models have suggested that the most long-infected populations are facing extinction.
“But they’re currently surviving,” said Andrew Storfer of Washington State University. Now, he and his colleagues have the start of an explanation as to why. In a study published today (August 30) in Nature Communications, Storfer and an international team of researchers reported genomic evidence to suggest that Tasmanian devils are evolving resistance to DFTD.
“It’s such an important finding,” said Beata Ujvari of Deakin University in Geelong, Australia, who did not participate in the work. “We suspected that the devils would evolve resistance to the disease,” she added. “It was really exciting to see that this hunch or hypothesis was actually correct.”
Storfer and colleagues scanned the genomes of 294 Tasmanian devils from three locations across the Australian island, examining tissue samples collected both ...
