Pearse A-M, Swift K
Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. PO Box 46, Kings Meadows, Tasmania 7249, Australia.
Nature. 2006 Feb 2;439(7076):549. doi: 10.1038/439549a.
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.
袋獾是一种大型食肉有袋动物，生活在澳大利亚塔斯马尼亚岛，正面临一种广泛传播的致命疾病的威胁。在这种疾病中，恶性口腔面部肿瘤会阻碍动物进食。我们发现，这些肿瘤中的染色体发生了复杂的重排，而且在所有被研究的动物中都是相同的。鉴于这一显著发现以及已知的袋獾打斗行为，我们认为这种疾病是通过同种异体移植传播的，即一种感染性细胞系通过它们相互撕咬直接在动物之间传播。
