Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Anticancer Adaptations

Justine Boutry; Antoine M Dujon; Anne-Lise Gerard; Sophie Tissot; Nick Macdonald; Aaron Schultz; Peter A Biro; Christa Beckmann; Rodrigo Hamede; David G Hamilton; Mathieu Giraudeau; Beata Ujvari; Frédéric Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101716

Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Anticancer Adaptations

iScience. 2020 Oct 20;23(11):101716. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101716. eCollection 2020 Nov 20.

Authors

Justine Boutry¹, Antoine M Dujon^{1

2}, Anne-Lise Gerard¹, Sophie Tissot¹, Nick Macdonald², Aaron Schultz², Peter A Biro², Christa Beckmann^{2

3

4}, Rodrigo Hamede⁵, David G Hamilton⁵, Mathieu Giraudeau¹, Beata Ujvari^{2

5}, Frédéric Thomas¹

Affiliations

¹ CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
² Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France.
³ School of Science, Western Sydney University, Parramatta, NSW, Australia.
⁴ Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.
⁵ School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.

Abstract

Cellular cheating leading to cancers exists in all branches of multicellular life, favoring the evolution of adaptations to avoid or suppress malignant progression, and/or to alleviate its fitness consequences. Ecologists have until recently largely neglected the importance of cancer cells for animal ecology, presumably because they did not consider either the potential ecological or evolutionary consequences of anticancer adaptations. Here, we review the diverse ways in which the evolution of anticancer adaptations has significantly constrained several aspects of the evolutionary ecology of multicellular organisms at the cell, individual, population, species, and ecosystem levels and suggest some avenues for future research.

Keywords: Biological Sciences; Cancer Systems Biology; Evolutionary Biology; Evolutionary Ecology.

Publication types

Review