Mitochondrial genome sequencing of marine leukemias reveals cancer contagion between clam species in the Seas of Southern Europe

  1. Garcia-Souto, Daniel 1
  2. Diaz-Costas, Seila 1
  3. Bruzos, Alicia L 1
  4. Rocha, Sara 2
  5. Roman-Lewis, Camila F 2
  6. Alonso, Juana 2
  7. Rodriguez, Rosana 2
  8. Jorge, Rodríguez-Castro 1
  9. Villanueva, Antonio 2
  10. Silva, Luis 3
  11. Valencia, Jose Maria 4
  12. Annona, Giovanni 5
  13. Tarallo, Andrea 5
  14. Ricardo, Fernando 6
  15. Bratos-Cetinic, Ana 7
  16. Posada, David 2
  17. Pasantes, Juan Jose 2
  18. MC Tubio, Jose 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
    info

    Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

    Santiago de Compostela, España

    ROR https://ror.org/030eybx10

  2. 2 Universidade de Vigo
    info

    Universidade de Vigo

    Vigo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05rdf8595

  3. 3 Instituto Español de Oceanografía
    info

    Instituto Español de Oceanografía

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/00f3x4340

  4. 4 Govern de les Illes Balears
    info

    Govern de les Illes Balears

    Palma, España

  5. 5 Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
    info

    Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

    Nápoles, Italia

    ROR https://ror.org/03v5jj203

  6. 6 Universidade de Aveiro
    info

    Universidade de Aveiro

    Aveiro, Portugal

    ROR https://ror.org/00nt41z93

  7. 7 University of Dubrovnik
    info

    University of Dubrovnik

    Dubrovnik, Croacia

    ROR https://ror.org/05yptqp13

Editor: Dryad

Ano de publicación: 2021

Tipo: Dataset

CC0 1.0

Resumo

Clonally transmissible cancers are tumour lineages that are transmitted between individuals via the transfer of living cancer cells. In marine bivalves, leukemia-like transmissible cancers, called hemic neoplasias, have demonstrated the ability to infect individuals from different species. We performed whole-genome sequencing in eight V. verrucosa clams that were diagnosed with hemic neoplasia, from two sampling points located more than 1,000 nautical miles away in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea Coasts of Spain. Mitochondrial genome sequencing of tumour tissues from neoplastic animals revealed the coexistence of haplotypes from two different clam species. Phylogenies estimated from mitochondrial and nuclear markers confirmed this leukemia originated in C. gallina (or a closely related taxa) and was later transmitted to V. verrucosa, in which it survived as a contagious cancer. The analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences supports all the studied tumours belonging to a single neoplastic C. gallina lineage that spread in the Seas of Southern Europe.