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Horizontal transmission of clonal cancer cells causes leukemia in soft-shell clams.

ABSTRACT: Outbreaks of fatal leukemia-like cancers of marine bivalves throughout the world have led to massive population loss. The cause of the disease is unknown. We recently identified a retrotransposon, Steamer, that is highly expressed and amplified to high copy number in neoplastic cells of soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria). Through analysis of Steamer integration sites, mitochondrial DNA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and polymorphic microsatellite alleles, we show that the genotypes of neoplastic cells do not match those of the host animal. Instead, neoplastic cells from dispersed locations in New York, Maine, and Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, all have nearly identical genotypes that differ from those of the host. These results indicate that the cancer is spreading between animals in the marine environment as a clonal transmissible cell derived from a single original clam. Our findings suggest that horizontal transmission of cancer cells is more widespread in nature than previously supposed.

SUBMITTER: Metzger MJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4393529 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Horizontal transmission of clonal cancer cells causes leukemia in soft-shell clams.

Metzger Michael J MJ Reinisch Carol C Sherry James J Goff Stephen P SP

Cell 20150401 2

Outbreaks of fatal leukemia-like cancers of marine bivalves throughout the world have led to massive population loss. The cause of the disease is unknown. We recently identified a retrotransposon, Steamer, that is highly expressed and amplified to high copy number in neoplastic cells of soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria). Through analysis of Steamer integration sites, mitochondrial DNA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and polymorphic microsatellite alleles, we show that the genotypes of neop ...[more]

PMID: 25860608

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Project description:In North America, a high mortality of soft-shell clams Mya arenaria was found to be related to the disease known as disseminated neoplasia (DN). Disseminated neoplasia is commonly recognized as a tetraploid disorder related to a disruption of the cell cycle. However, the molecular mechanisms by which hemocytes of clams are transformed in the course of DN remain by far unknown. This study aims at identifying the transcripts related to DN in soft shell clams' hemocytes using next generation of sequencing (Illumina HiSeq2000). This study mainly focuses on transcripts and molecular mechanisms involved in cell cycle. Using Illumina next generation of sequencing, more than 95,399,159 reads count with an average length of 45 bp was generated from three groups of hemocytes: (1) a healthy group with less than 10% of tetraploid cells; (2) an intermediate group with tetraploid hemocytes ranging between 10% and 50% and (3) a diseased group with more than 50% of tetraploid cells. After the reads were cleaned by removing the adapters, de novo assembly was performed on the sequences and more than 73,696 contigs were generated with a mean contig length estimated at 585 bp ranging from 189 bp to 14,773 bp. Once a Blastx search against NCBI Non Redundant database was performed and the duplicates removed, 18,378 annotated sequences matched known sequences, 3078 were hypothetical and 9002 were uncharacterized sequences. Fifty percent and 41% of known sequences match sequences from Mollusca and Gastropoda respectively. Among the bivalvia, 33%, 17%, 17% and 15% of the contigs match sequences from Ostreoida, Veneroida, Pectinoida and Mytiloida respectively. Gene ontology analysis showed that metabolic, cellular, transport, cell communication and cell cycle represent 33%, 15%, 9%, 8.5% and 7% respectively of the total biological process. Approximately 70% of the component process is related to intracellular process and 15% is linked to protein and ribonucleoprotein complex. Catalytic activities and binding molecular processes represent 39% and 33% of the total molecular functions. Interestingly, nucleic acid binding represents more than 18% of the total protein class. Transcripts involved in the molecular mechanisms of cell cycle are discussed providing new avenues for future investigations.

Dataset Information

Horizontal transmission of clonal cancer cells causes leukemia in soft-shell clams.

Publications

Horizontal transmission of clonal cancer cells causes leukemia in soft-shell clams.

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