The role of koala retrovirus integrations in promoting neoplasia in koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus). In Proceedings of the Second Koala Retrovirus Workshop, ed. D. E. Alquezar-Planas, D. P. Higgins, C. L. Singleton, and A. D. Greenwood

Koalas suffer unusually high rates of neoplasia. There has been a long-standing correlation between koalas with the koala retrovirus (KoRV) and development neoplasia which lacked mechanistic explanation. We describe recent results that demonstrate many KoRV integrations lead to by (I) inserting into somatic cells preferentially near oncogenes, (II) germ oncogenes predisposing cancer, (III) transduction—replacing genes resulting in drastic upregulation transduced gene. The mortality associated integration-driven promotion may explain increased prevalence dysfunctional recombinant KoRVs (recKoRVs), which, over time, could replace KoRV, thereby slowing production novel detrimental integration sites.