Chernobyl’s Dogs May Be Evolving, but Scientists Don’t Know Why
The dogs living near the disaster site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are not like other dogs—at least as far as their genomes go. In recent years, researchers uncovered a unique genetic profile among this population, but what’s driven this distinction remained unclear.
The explanation that’s perhaps most tantalizing to a sci-fi author is that the persistent radiation at the nuclear site has caused mutations to accumulate in the dogs’ genomes. But there are other ways a population’s genetics can change over time, such as random drift or natural selection. A recent study published in the scientific journal Genes revisited these pups, searching for genetic patterns pointing to one of these processes.
The researchers compared the DNA from dogs living in the area right around the nuclear plant with genetic material from dogs living in the city of Chernobyl, about 16 kilometers away. They also compared these canines...
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