TY - JOUR TI - A single clonal lineage of transmissible cancer identified in two marine mussel species in South America and Europe AU - Yonemitsu, Marisa A AU - Giersch, Rachael M AU - Polo-Prieto, Maria AU - Hammel, Maurine AU - Simon, Alexis AU - Cremonte, Florencia AU - Avilés, Fernando T AU - Merino-Véliz, Nicolás AU - Burioli, Erika AV AU - Muttray, Annette F AU - Sherry, James AU - Reinisch, Carol AU - Baldwin, Susan A AU - Goff, Stephen P AU - Houssin, Maryline AU - Arriagada, Gloria AU - Vázquez, Nuria AU - Bierne, Nicolas AU - Metzger, Michael J A2 - Ostrander, Elaine A2 - Wittkopp, Patricia J VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/11/05 SP - e47788 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e47788 DO - 10.7554/eLife.47788 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.47788 AB - Transmissible cancers, in which cancer cells themselves act as an infectious agent, have been identified in Tasmanian devils, dogs, and four bivalves. We investigated a disseminated neoplasia affecting geographically distant populations of two species of mussels (Mytilus chilensis in South America and M. edulis in Europe). Sequencing alleles from four loci (two nuclear and two mitochondrial) provided evidence of transmissible cancer in both species. Phylogenetic analysis of cancer-associated alleles and analysis of diagnostic SNPs showed that cancers in both species likely arose in a third species of mussel (M. trossulus), but these cancer cells are independent from the previously identified transmissible cancer in M. trossulus from Canada. Unexpectedly, cancers from M. chilensis and M. edulis are nearly identical, showing that the same cancer lineage affects both. Thus, a single transmissible cancer lineage has crossed into two new host species and has been transferred across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. KW - transmissible cancer KW - bivalve KW - bivalve transmissible neoplasia KW - Mytilus KW - Mytilus chilensis KW - Mytilus edulis JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -