Researchers have been battling to find a cure for a deadly facial tumor disease that has decimated the numbers of the rare animals -- found only in Australia's island state of Tasmania.
But now scientists at Sydney University have suggested a lack of genetic diversity because of inbreeding will doom the devils in any case.
The Age warns:
Researchers from NSW and Tasmania have now found out why: the group of genes involved in recognising foreign cells is genetically very similar in all devils. The same genes are also found in the tumours, so when devils are infected by the disease, which is spread by biting, their immune system does not recognise the cells as foreign, and does not respond.
Dr Belov, of the University of Sydney, said this phenomenon probably developed when devil numbers fell. Low genetic diversity meant there was no natural barrier to prevent the disease spreading.
The Independent reports:
They're vicious, ugly and smelly – and endangered by a mysterious disfiguring disease. But that hasn't deterred Australians from rushing to the aid of the Tasmanian devil, in an ambitious project that has been compared to Noah's Ark. Kathy Marks reports on a extraordinary evacuation
ScienceAlert:
"We found that the Devils do not mount an immune response against the tumour," said Dr Belov. "This was due to a loss of genetic diversity in the most important immune gene region of the genome: the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). Matching of MHC genes is the key to successful tissue or organ transplants. In the case of the devil, genetic diversity at MHC genes is so low, and the MHC type of the tumour and host are so alike, that the host does not see the tumour as "non-self," she said.
I've been fond of the Tasmanian Devil since I discovered them in childhood via the cartoon:
Check out the Save the Tasmanian Devil Campaign.
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