Abstract
Studies of cancer in wildlife species present unique challenges, but research is beginning to uncover causes of cancer and its impact on wildlife populations. Causes of cancer in wildlife include environmental carcinogens, viruses and other pathogens, hereditary factors, and direct transmission of tumor cells. Here, we review progress and potential for population genomics to address issues such as genetic variation for susceptibility, comparative genomics of tumor suppressor genes, and evolutionary response to cancers. We also address the implications of cancer, and the potential of population genomics research, to inform conservation and management of wildlife populations. As an illustrative case study, we focus on the unique case of a transmissible cancer, devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), which has had a dramatic impact on demography and life history of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Recent population genomics research has revealed genetic variation underlying DFTD-related phenotypes and signatures of rapid evolution at candidate loci associated with cancer and immune function. The DFTD-devil system illustrates how genomics tools can be applied to an epizootic cancer in a wildlife population, providing insights into basic cancer biology as well as lessons for potential conservation strategies.
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Acknowledgments
Support was provided to SAH by the National Institute of Health grant P30GM103324; NIH grant R01GM126563 and National Science Foundation grant DEB-1316549 as part of the joint NIH-NSF-USDA Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program to PAH and AS; and the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program at the University of Idaho.
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Hendricks, S.A., Storfer, A., Hohenlohe, P.A. (2020). Population Genomics of Wildlife Cancer. In: Hohenlohe, P.A., Rajora, O.P. (eds) Population Genomics: Wildlife. Population Genomics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/13836_2020_81
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