Evolution and lineage dynamics of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.

Devil facial tumour 1 (DFT1) is a transmissible cancer clone endangering the Tasmanian devil. The expansion of DFT1 across Tasmania has been documented, but little is known of its evolutionary history. We analysed genomes of 648 DFT1 tumours collected throughout the disease range between 2003 and 2018.

Large-effect loci affect survival in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) infected with a transmissible cancer.

Identifying the genetic architecture of complex phenotypes is a central goal of modern biology, particularly for disease-related traits. Genome-wide association methods are a classical approach for identifying the genomic basis of variation in disease phenotypes, but such analyses are particularly challenging in natural populations due to sample size difficulties. Extensive mark-recapture data, strong linkage disequilibrium and a lethal transmissible cancer make the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) an ideal model for such an association study.

Density trends and demographic signals uncover the long-term impact of transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.

1. Monitoring the response of wild mammal populations to threatening processes is fundamental to effective conservation management. This is especially true for infectious diseases, which may have dynamic and therefore unpredictable interactions with their host.

Monitoring, imperfect detection, and risk optimization of a Tasmanian devil insurance population.

Most species are imperfectly detected during biological surveys, which creates uncertainty around their abundance or presence at a given location. Decision makers managing threatened or pest species are regularly faced with this uncertainty. Wildlife diseases can drive species to extinction; thus, managing species with disease is an important part of conservation.

Analysis of extended HLA haplotypes in multiple sclerosis and narcolepsy families confirms a predisposing effect for the class I region in Tasmanian MS patients.

Human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1*15 is associated with predisposition to multiple sclerosis (MS), although conjecture surrounds the possible involvement of an alternate risk locus in the class I region of the HLA complex. We have shown previously that an alternate MS risk allele(s) may be encompassed by the telomerically extended DRB1*15 haplotype, and here, we have attempted to map the putative variant. Thirteen microsatellite markers encompassing a 6.

On the utility of data from the International HapMap Project for Australian association studies.

We compare patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) for 633 SNPs in two regions between samples collected in two Australian states and HapMap samples collected from Utah residents of Northern and Western (NW) European ancestry (CEU). Patterns of LD in the Australian and HapMap samples are similar, and tag SNPs chosen using HapMap genotypes perform almost as well on Australian samples as tags chosen using Australian genotypes.