4 ms·
Wow, I never knew that could happen! Are there other examples or a name for this phenomenon?
by kevinmchugh 2y ago
Wow, I never knew that could happen! Are there other examples or a name for this phenomenon?
- swayvil 2y agoGood scifi. We need Egan or Hughes to do it up. It's like Battlestar Galactica, except with cellular stuff.
- pfdietz 2y agoMaybe a cheery tale from Peter Watts?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- snovv_crash 2y agoThere are contagious cancers that you can catch via blood transfer. This has wiped out most of Australia's Tasmanian Devil population.
- astrobe_ 2y agoThat's surprising. Why doesn't the HLA system work in this case ?
- roywiggins 2y agoGenetic bottleneck, they don't have enough genetic diversity to recognize the cancer cells as foreign.
- ethbr1 2y agoBy most, parent means 80% species die-off rates. :( Disclaimer: sad pictures of extreme facial tumors https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
- acyou 2y agoThe article says that there is a gene for resistance to that cancer already present in the Tasmanian Devil genome. It's a fascinating mechanism. Wonder if it evolved related to overpopulation?
- roywiggins 2y agoThe likely reason the cancer is transmittable at all is due to underpopulation/genetic bottleneck. Animal immune systems usually have no problem recognizing and destroying cells from other individuals, even cancerous ones, but you need sufficiently distinct immune markers on your cells for them to recognize as "foreign."
- failrate 2y agoImmortal sexually transmitted canine cancer.