Nicolas BierneNov 3, 2022
These "punky" cells with green hairy projections (involved in cell-cell interactions) are microparasites with a mussel genome, they evolved for centuries from a founder cancer that acquired the ability to spread from host to host 🤯
Show threadDataviking 🦣Nov 3, 2022
@couplingdmi This is soo cool!
Show threadNicolas BierneNov 3, 2022
@CastellanoED oh yes I forgot to use the #MusselsAreCool hashtag 🤦
Show threadDataviking 🦣
@couplingdmi do they parasite only mussels? #musselsarecool
Nov 3, 2022 at 2:29pmWeb
Show threadNicolas BierneNov 3, 2022
@CastellanoED yes but several species, and other bivalves have their own. They are called Bivalves Transmissible Neoplasia (BTN) #TransCan
Show threadDataviking 🦣Nov 3, 2022
@couplingdmi super interesting case of reduction of the phenotype complexity right?? Do you know if the distribution of fitness effects of the mussel parasite and the original mussel differ? I'm realising I have many questions.
Show threadNicolas BierneNov 3, 2022
@CastellanoED anyone has many questions on these fantastic beasts. As in standard cancers dn/ds=1 in #TansCan BTNs, but we still have to norrow down on some genes and decipher the dominance effect. A lot to do...