Like humans and most other animal species, marine bivalves can develop cancer. Malignant hemic neoplasia (HN) — analogous in some ways to leukemia in humans — is lethal to mollusks and has been studied extensively for its impact on species of commercial interest. Although HN was characterized as a pathological condition in mollusks several decades ago, it has only been revealed recently that some large-scale bivalve die-offs are caused by horizontal mollusk-to-mollusk direct transmission of cancerous HN cells referred to as disseminated neoplasia (DN). Using cutting-edge methods of cell culture, genetic engineering, and genomic modification, we propose to engineer normal quagga and zebra mussel hemocytes into “induced” DN cells (iDNCs) that can be used to transmit and foster lethal cancer into populations of these invasive species in open waters.
