tasmanian devil cells have 14 chromosomes; the oldest-known strain of the tumour cells have thirteen chromosomes, nine of which are recognisable and four of which are mutated "marker" chromosomes. more recently evolved strains have an additional mutant marker chromosome, for a total of fourteen chromosomes. researchers identified the cancer as a neuroendocrine tumour, and found identical chromosomal rearrangements in all the cancer cells. the karyotype anomalies of dftd cells are similar to those of cancer cells from canine transmissible venereal tumour (ctvt), a cancer of dogs that is transmitted by physical contact. among the mutations present in the tumour genome is trisomy in chromosome 5p, as well as several single base mutations, and short insertions and deletions, e.g., deletions in the chromosomes 1, 2 and 3. some of the mutated or deleted genes in dftd are ret, fancd2, mast3 and btnl9-like gene.