In 1986, reactor number four atthe Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine suffered a catastrophic meltdown.
In the area surrounding the power plant, an ecological disaster began to unfold.
Polluted soil withered crops.
Pets were not permitted to travel with the evacuees and had to be abandoned.
But some of the pets evaded capture and killing, making a home in the CEZ.
The liquidators would often feed and house the now-strays, and the populations persevered.
This unfortunate fate for the canines has a somewhat grim silver lining.
It’s the first time a large mammal in the CEZ has been studied in this way.
Inbreeding and isolation can cause the kind of changes the team has seen in the DNA.
A de novo mutation is one that wasn’t passed down genetically.
That’s exactly what the Chernobyl dog team plans to do.
Comparing the whole genome sequences will help uncover these relationships.
Other studies hint at the kind of revelationsthat might come from studying organisms in the CEZ.
Will the genomes of Chernobyl’s dogs provide a similar level of insight?
That’s an open question the team is eager to answer.
