ArticleNature ecology & evolution2021
Spontaneous cell fusions as a mechanism of parasexual recombination in tumour cell populations.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- The influence of cell-cell fusion on cancer heterogeneity and its promise for targeted treatments.Cellular oncology (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2026Review
- Implications of Heterotypic Cell Fusion in Cancer.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Cell-Cell Fusion as a Mechanism of Immune Evasion and Metastatic Progression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Genomic Reshuffling After Cell Fusion: Catalyst for Cancer Evolution and Progression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Revisiting Clonal Evolution Through the Light of Retrotransposons.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Simultaneous expression of epithelial and immune cell markers in circulating tumor cells identified in patients with stage 4 breast cancer.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Molecular Dynamics of Trogocytosis and Other Contact-Dependent Cell Trafficking Mechanisms in Tumor Pathogenesis.Cancers · 2025Review
- Article
- Advances in tumor subclone formation and mechanisms of growth and invasion.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Review
- Mapping cell-cell fusion at single-cell resolution.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Fusion of tumor cells and mesenchymal stem/stroma cells: a source of tumor heterogeneity, evolution and recurrence.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Renal cancer cells acquire immune surface protein through trogocytosis and horizontal gene transfer.PloS one · 2025Article
- Effects of polystyrene nano- and microplastics on human breast epithelial cells and human breast cancer cells.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Cell-cell fusion in cancer: The next cancer hallmark?The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology · 2024Review
- The evolutionary theory of cancer: challenges and potential solutions.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2024Review
- Pediatric Leukemia Roadmaps Are a Guide for Positive Metastatic Bone Sarcoma Trials.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2024Article
- Male hermaphroditism with rare malignant transformation of gonadal organs: a case report.Discover oncology · 2024Article
- Surviving the Storm: The Role of Poly- and Depolyploidization in Tissues and Tumors.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- How Much Do You Fuse? A Comparison of Cell Fusion Assays in a Breast Cancer Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The initiation and progression of cancers reflect the underlying process of somatic evolution, in which the diversification of heritable phenotypes provides a substrate for natural selection, resulting in the outgrowth of the most fit subpopulations. Although somatic evolution can tap into multiple sources of diversification, it is assumed to lack access to (para)sexual recombination-a key diversification mechanism throughout all strata of life. On the basis of observations of spontaneous fusions involving cancer cells, the reported genetic instability of polypoid cells and the precedence of fusion-mediated parasexual recombination in fungi, we asked whether cell fusions between genetically distinct cancer cells could produce parasexual recombination. Using differentially labelled tumour cells, we found evidence of low-frequency, spontaneous cell fusions between carcinoma cells in multiple cell line models of breast cancer both in vitro and in vivo. While some hybrids remained polyploid, many displayed partial ploidy reduction, generating diverse progeny with heterogeneous inheritance of parental alleles, indicative of partial recombination. Hybrid cells also displayed elevated levels of phenotypic plasticity, which may further amplify the impact of cell fusions on the diversification of phenotypic traits. Using mathematical modelling, we demonstrated that the observed rates of spontaneous somatic cell fusions may enable populations of tumour cells to amplify clonal heterogeneity, thus facilitating the exploration of larger areas of the adaptive landscape (relative to strictly asexual populations), which may substantially accelerate a tumour's ability to adapt to new selective pressures.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.