Biology

Excerpt:

They live in our houses, drink our water and even sleep in our beds. Cats have become an integral part of many households and share much of our lives.

They also share much of their biology with humans. Pet cats get cancer at a rate similar to humans and often develop the same types of cancer. Just like in humans, as health care and diets have improved, cats are living longer, which puts them at a higher lifetime risk of cancer.

But how similar are cat cancers to human cancers at the genetic level? Research colleagues and I have conducted the largest-ever cancer DNA sequencing study of cat tumours. Our research reveals striking similarities between feline and human cancers, and the results reveal benefits for cats as well as humans.

Newly published work from our international collaboration studied the tumours of 500 cats, including 13 different tumour types. We isolated DNA from these tumours, and mapped the sequence of 1,000 genes that are often found mutated in human cancers.

Article Authors:

• Sarah E. Turner | Associate Professor, Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University
• Brogan M. Stewart | PhD Candidate in Environmental Science, Concordia University
• Megan M. Joyce | PhD Student in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University
• Mikaela Gerwing | Wildlife Conservation Biologist and PhD Student, Concordia University

Intro:

Little Punch, a seven-month-old Japanese macaque living in the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, has captured hearts on the internet. Abandoned by his mother in the first few days of his life and raised by the keepers at the zoo, he has had some trouble integrating into the group of around 60 Japanese macaques.

The keepers gave him a stuffed orangutan, which he carries with him — grooming its plushy fur the way monkeys usually care for one another. Some monkeys in the group were pushing Punch away, dragging him and reacting negatively to him. The internet is demanding to know why. And why would his mother abandon him?

As primate researchers who have spent thousands of hours scientifically observing Japanese monkeys like Punch, we wanted to provide a bit of Japanese monkey-world context.

Haliotis jacnensis, commonly known as the Jacna abalone, is a species of sea snail in the abalone family, Haliotidae. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean at depths between sea level and 50 metres (160 ft), around the coasts of American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Indonesia, Japan, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. H. jacnensis features an oblong–ovate shell that varies in size between 7 to 25 millimetres (0.28 to 0.98 in). The shell is reddish-orange with a silvery interior and features irregular scaly ridges. This picture shows five views of a H. jacnensis shell, 18 millimetres (0.71 in) in length, found on Masbate Island in the Philippines.

Photographer: H. Zell (2023)

CC BY-SA 3.0

In February 2026, over 70 years after doctors took Lacks’ cells without her consent or knowledge, her family reached a settlement with biotech company Novartis, which they’d sued in 2024 for making billions of dollars from her unethically harvested cells. Lacks’ descendants also filed lawsuits against several other biotech companies, including Thermo Fisher, which they reached a settlement with in August 2023. The family had not been previously compensated.

Lacks’ cervical cancer cells, called “HeLa” after the first two letters of her first and last name, are immortal, continuing to divide when most cells would die. This ability to survive through endless generations of cells is what makes them invaluable for scientists conducting experiments on human cells.

Some facts about this salamander in the family Ambystomatidae:

Length: Typically 4.1–8.9 cm (1.6–3.5 in) when mature

Range: The distribution of the long-toed salamander is primarily in the Pacific Northwest, Western North America, with an altitudinal range of up to 2,800 m (9,200 ft).

Type locality: "Astoria, [Clatsop County], Oregon", USA.

Habitat: The Long-toed Salamander lives in a variety of habitats, including temperate rainforests, coniferous forests, montane riparian zones, sagebrush plains, red fir forests, semiarid sagebrush, cheatgrass plains, and alpine meadows along the rocky shores of mountain lakes. It lives in slow-moving streams, ponds, and lakes during its aquatic breeding phase. The long-toed salamander hibernates during the cold winter months, surviving on energy reserves stored in the skin and tail.

First described: By the American naturalist and museum curator Spencer Fullerton Baird in 1850.

Conservation status: Not threatened.

While the Long-toed Salamander is classified as Least Concern (LC) by the IUCN, many forms of land development negatively affect the salamander's habitat and have put new perspectives and priorities into its conservation biology. Conservation priorities focus at the population level of diversity, which is declining at rates ten times that of species extinction. Population level diversity is what provides ecosystem services, such as the keystone role that salamanders play in the soil ecosystems, including the nutrient cycling that supports wetland and forested ecosystems.

The subspecies Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum Russell & Anderson, 1956 (Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander) is of particular concern and it was afforded protections in 1967 under the US Endangered Species Act. This subspecies lives in a narrow range of habitat in Santa Cruz County and Monterey County, California. Prior to receiving protections, some few remaining populations were threatened by development. The subspecies is ecologically unique, having unique and irregular skin patterns on its back, a unique moisture tolerance, and it is also an endemic that is geographically isolated from the rest of the species range. Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum is considered Critically Imperiled (T1) by the NatureServe conservation status system.

Photographer: Thompsma