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In Puget Sound, Washington, MarBTN was found in two sites beginning in 2022 and increased to over 75% prevalence by 2024, while remaining undetectable elsewhere. Somatic transposon evidence suggested recent transfer from New England, and hybridizing M. arenaria and M. japonica populations were identified. A sensitive eDNA assay targeting MarBTN mitogenome mutations detected high cancer levels at multiple surrounding locations, demonstrating eDNA utility for tracking BTN spread.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/atlantic-to-pacific-outbreak-of-bivalve-transmissible-neoplasia-detected-in-hybridizing-soft-shell-clams-and-edna-in-puget-sound/349406/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/atlantic-to-pacific-outbreak-of-bivalve-transmissible-neoplasia-detected-in-hybridizing-soft-shell-clams-and-edna-in-puget-sound/349406.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Aldword","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-23","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":14},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What triggered the discovery of MarBTN in Puget Sound soft-shell clams?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"In 2022, soft-shell clams were collected in Puget Sound and MarBTN was unexpectedly found at two sites.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How did the authors determine the outbreak likely came from the East Coast?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They based this on somatic transposon insertion sites present only in the USA sublineage, indicating recent transplantation from New England.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How was environmental DNA (eDNA) used in the study?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The team developed a sensitive eDNA assay targeting somatic mutations in the MarBTN mitogenome, then surveyed 51 Puget Sound sites to detect cancer levels in the surrounding environment.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},349406,1790198548,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":14,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},2336478940917,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","RESEARCH ARTICLE  \nECOLOGY  \n OPEN ACCESS  \nAtlantic to Pacific: Outbreak of bivalve transmissible neoplasia detected in hybridizing soft-shell clams and eDNA in  \nPuget Sound  \nSydney A. Weinandta, b, 1 , Zachary J. Childa, 1 , Dorothy Larteya,c, Angel Santosd,e , Holden Maxfieldd,f, Jordana K. Sevignya,g , Fiona E. S. Garretta, Peter D. Smitha , Rachael M. Gierscha, h , Samuel F. M. Harta, i , Lucas Rabinsj, Samuel Kaiserj, Anna Boyark , Jan Newtonk, Jesse Kerrl,  \nFranchesca Perezm, James L. Dimondd , and Michael J. Metzgera,2  Affiliations are included on p. 10.  \nEdited by Fred Gould, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; received April 9, 2026; accepted May 26, 2026  \nBivalve transmissible neoplasias (BTNs) are transmissible cancers that have arisen in multiple bivalve species, including Eastern soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria) populations on the East Coast of North America. Two sublineages ofa single clone (termed MarBTN) currently circulate at low enzootic levels (1 to 5%) in New England, the United States, and Prince Edward Island, Canada, but MarBTN has not previously been observed in soft-shell clams on the West Coast. In 2022, we collected soft-shell clams in Puget Sound, Washington, and unexpectedly found MarBTN in two sites. Prevalence increased in subsequent years, surpassing 75% at both sites in 2024, while remaining undetectable in other populations, suggesting the early stages ofa severe disease outbreak. Based on the presence of somatic transposon insertion sites found only in the USA-sublineage, the cancer was likely recently transplanted from New England. We also found that soft-shell clams in multiple Puget Sound locations are hybridizing populations of M. arenaria and Mya japonica. M.japonica may have decreased susceptibility to this cancer, though further sampling will be needed to confirm this hypothesis. We further developed a sensitive environmental DNA (eDNA) assay, targeting somatic mutations in the MarBTN mitogenome. Using this assay, we surveyed 51 sites throughout Puget Sound, detecting cancer at high levels at sites where MarBTN-positive clams were observed and in the surrounding area. These results identify a severe outbreak of transmissible cancer in a hybridizing population, due to transfer of disease from another ocean, and demonstrate the utility of eDNA methods to track BTN through the environment.  \ntransmissible cancer | disseminated neoplasia | bivalve transmissible neoplasia | marine infectious disease | ecology and evolution of infectious disease  \nMost known cancers arise within an animal and remain within the same individual until the end of their life; however, there are a few rare types of horizontally transmitted cancersin which the cancer cells from one individual directly infect and engraft in other animals. Transmissible cancers were first found in dogs as canine transmissible venereal tumor disease (CTVT) ( 1, 2) and Tasmanian devils as devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) (3) . These tumors are transmitted between individuals through physical contact, and in all cases exhibit genotypes that do not match their hosts but rather show clear clonal, transmissible lineages—a single lineage in dogs, and two independent lineages in devils (4) . In many bivalve species, a lethal, leukemia-like disseminated neoplasia (DN) has been determined to be a bivalve transmissible neoplasia (BTN) (5–7), with at least 10 independent lineages observed affecting at least 10 different species (8–13) .  \nBTN is characterized by the accumulation of neoplastic cells in the hemolymph, or circulatory fluid, of the bivalve, followed by dissemination into the solid tissues of the animal as the disease progresses until the death of the animal ( 14, 15) . These cancer cells are rounded, nonadherent, and usually polyploid, in contrast to healthy bivalve hemocytes. BTN cells are capable of surviving in artificial sea water for weeks, indicating that the method of transmission is likely through the water c","cbCaieRxITTYrBr4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieRxITTYrBr4","pdf",5889130,11,"English","# Atlantic to Pacific: Outbreak overview\n## BTN characteristics and transmission\n## Evidence of West Coast outbreak in Puget Sound\n## Hybridization and host susceptibility\n## eDNA assay development and environmental surveillance","[{\"question\":\"What triggered the discovery of MarBTN in Puget Sound soft-shell clams?\",\"answer\":\"In 2022, soft-shell clams were collected in Puget Sound and MarBTN was unexpectedly found at two sites.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the authors determine the outbreak likely came from the East Coast?\",\"answer\":\"They based this on somatic transposon insertion sites present only in the USA sublineage, indicating recent transplantation from New England.\"},{\"question\":\"How was environmental DNA (eDNA) used in the study?\",\"answer\":\"The team developed a sensitive eDNA assay targeting somatic mutations in the MarBTN mitogenome, then surveyed 51 Puget Sound sites to detect cancer levels in the surrounding environment.\"}]","Atlantic to Pacific - Outbreak of bivalve transmissible neoplasia detected in hybridizing soft-shell clams and eDNA in Puget Sound | PDF",1790083164,28]