Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America.
Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society, Arizona State University, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2021 Nov 17;19(11):e3001471. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001471. eCollection 2021 Nov.
Trichoplax adhaerens is the simplest multicellular animal with tissue differentiation and somatic cell turnover. Like all other multicellular organisms, it should be vulnerable to cancer, yet there have been no reports of cancer in T. adhaerens or any other placozoan. We investigated the cancer resistance of T. adhaerens, discovering that they are able to tolerate high levels of radiation damage (218.6 Gy). To investigate how T. adhaerens survive levels of radiation that are lethal to other animals, we examined gene expression after the X-ray exposure, finding overexpression of genes involved in DNA repair and apoptosis including the MDM2 gene. We also discovered that T. adhaerens extrudes clusters of inviable cells after X-ray exposure. T. adhaerens is a valuable model organism for studying the molecular, genetic, and tissue-level mechanisms underlying cancer suppression.
粘着苔虫是最简单的具有组织分化和体细胞更新的多细胞动物。像所有其他多细胞生物一样,它应该容易患癌症,但在粘着苔虫或任何其他扁盘动物中都没有癌症的报告。我们研究了粘着苔虫的抗癌能力,发现它们能够耐受高水平的辐射损伤(218.6Gy)。为了研究粘着苔虫如何在其他动物致死的辐射水平下存活,我们在 X 射线照射后检查了基因表达,发现参与 DNA 修复和细胞凋亡的基因(包括 MDM2 基因)表达过度。我们还发现,粘着苔虫在 X 射线照射后会排出 clusters of inviable cells。粘着苔虫是研究癌症抑制的分子、遗传和组织水平机制的有价值的模式生物。