What’s fishy in New England: Melanoma in a benthic catfish species represents a new transmissible cancer

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• Dr. Julie Dragon, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont
• Tuesday 09 December 2025, 15:00-16:00
• LT2, Department of Veterinary Medicine.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Fiona Roby.

Since 2012, brown bullheads (Ameiurus nebulosus, a type of catfish) in a lake spanning Vermont, USA and Quebec, Canada have shown a high rate of melanomas, suggesting a causal contaminant or contagion. We tested the hypothesis that this affliction represents a clonally transmissible cancer, a rare phenomenon in which cancer cells themselves spread between individuals, behaving more like parasites than conventional tumors. Whole genome sequencing of tumor and matched healthy host tissues revealed that tumor mitochondrial and nuclear genomes are more closely related to each other than to their hosts or unaffected fish. Hundreds of thousands of genetic variants are shared among tumor samples but absent from host fish, vastly exceeding levels seen in conventional cancers. These findings indicate that melanoma in these brown bullheads represents the fourth documented type of naturally occurring transmissible cancer in animals, after Tasmanian devils, dogs, and bivalve species. This raises important questions about the cancer’s origin, mode of transmission, and long-term impact on fish populations.

Zoom Link for remote viewing: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/82341273691?pwd=ni9zayzBiZVaFpLslZCZcIwyhYa3u0.1

Meeting ID: 823 4127 3691 Passcode: 372766

This talk is part of the Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Immunology
• Cambridge Infectious Disease
• Cambridge Infectious Diseases
• Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine
• LT2, Department of Veterinary Medicine
• Vet School Seminars

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