Scientists describe T. adhaerens’ unusual behavior, including its capacity to repair its DNA even after significant radiation damage and to extrude injured cells, which later die. The findings advance scientific investigations of natural cancer-suppression mechanisms across life. Insights gleaned from these evolutionary adaptations may find their way into new and more effective therapies for this leading killer.

In a new study, Angelo Fortunato and his colleagues describe T. adhaerens’ unusual behavior, including its capacity to repair its DNA even after significant radiation damage and to extrude injured cells, which later die.

The findings advance scientific investigations of natural cancer-suppression mechanisms across life. Insights gleaned from these evolutionary adaptations may find their way into new and more effective therapies for this leading killer. Last year, over 600,000 people lost their lives to cancer in the US alone.

The unusual microorganism observed in the new study is rudimentary in form and easily cultured in the lab. This makes T. adhaerens an attractive model organism, enabling researchers to home in on fundamental processes of radiation tolerance as well as the underlying mechanisms guiding DNA repair, programmed cell death and other natural means of cancer resistance.

Fortunato is a researcher in the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center and the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society at Arizona State University. He is also a researcher in ASU’s School of Life Sciences.

Carlo Maley, a co-author of the new study is a researcher in the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society and the Center for Mechanisms of Evolution as well as ASU’s School of Life Sciences. He is the director of the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center.

Story Source:
Materials provided by Arizona State University. Original written by Richard Harth. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.