CANBERRA (Reuters) – A group of scientists mapped for the first time the genome of the dreaded Australian Tasmanian Devil and found lethal facial tumors that are decimating the species to evolve very slowly, which could be found a way to help them before they become extinct.
In addition, scientists at the Australian National University said on Friday that its discovery, published in the journal PLoS Genetics, could help to unravel the process of how they evolve human cancers.
The demons from Tasmania, popularized by the animated beast “Taz”, are carnivorous marsupials the size of a small dog. Facial tumors have ravaged the wild population, confined to the Australian Tasmanian island since they were discovered in the mid-1990s.
Scientists believe that unless aid is, the wild population could extinguish within few decades.
But the mapping carried out by researchers led by Janine Deakin found that, at the genetic level, these tumors very slowly evolve what facilitates their study and possibly give a chance to circumvent them.
Addition, this would offer an unusual possibility of studying how human cancers develop, he added Deakin.
“Given that we find that the tumor of the demon is evolving so slowly, we can use that as a model to observe in human cancers.” “It is a little slower than the process of cancer in people,” added the author.
“In human cancers, the changes are so fast that we have no possibility to investigate the mechanisms that Act.” “And Yes we can do that with the devil,” clarified.
Tumor of the Tasmanian Devil is spread by skin to skin contact and causes death deformed animals, dying of starvation or suffocation.
The Deakin team also found that important fragments of the chromosomes of the demons affected by tumors are mixed, like a great puzzle armed the incorrectly.
“A (chromosome) in particular is completely shattered, what makes that genes are not in the proper order,” said Deakin.
This discovery could lead to more research routes.
A previous American study on demons of Tasmania showed that the population had little genetic diversity, which would return them vulnerable to cancer.
(Published in Spanish by Ana Laura Mitidieri)
