PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A Gastaldello
AU  - SH Ramarathinam
AU  - A Bailey
AU  - R Owen
AU  - S Turner
AU  - A Kontouli
AU  - T Elliott
AU  - P Skipp
AU  - AW Purcell
AU  - HV Siddle
TI  - Passage of transmissible cancers in the Tasmanian devil is due to a dominant, shared peptide motif and a limited repertoire of MHC-I allotypes
AID  - 10.1101/2020.07.03.184416
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.07.03.184416
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/04/2020.07.03.184416.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/04/2020.07.03.184416.full
AB  - Transmissible cancers are spread via the passage of malignant cells. The survival of the Tasmanian devil, the largest marsupial carnivore, is threatened by two independent transmissible cancers, devil facial tumour (DFT) 1 and devil facial tumour 2 (DFT2). To aid the development of a peptide vaccine and to interrogate how histocompatibility barriers can be overcome, we analysed the peptides bound to Major Histocompatibility Complex class I molecules from the Tasmanian devil and its transmissible tumours. Comparison of the peptidomes from DFT1+IFNγ, DFT2 and host fibroblast cells demonstrates a shared motif, despite differences in MHC-I allotypes between the cell lines. Importantly, DFT1+IFNγ and DFT2 share the presentation of peptides derived from neural proteins, reflecting a common cellular origin that should be exploited for vaccine design. These results suggest that some polymorphisms between tumours and host are ‘hidden’ by a common peptide motif, providing the potential for permissive passage of infectious cells.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.