Comparative analyses showed the Chernobyl dogs are also genetically distinct from free-breeding dogs in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
There have, however, been some influxes of genetic material from modern dogs such as mastiffs into some Chernobyl populations. This may be because residents and their pets have begun moving back into Chernobyl City, the researchers suspect.
What will be interesting for future studies is that the three Chernobyl dog populations have been exposed to varying levels of radiation.
The next step, the researchers say, will be designing broader studies “aimed at finding critical genetic variants that have accumulated for more than 30 years in this hostile, contaminated environment.”
If the studies conducted so far on the wildlife of Chernobyl are anything to go by – and based on what we know about how environmental exposures can be inherited as molecular etchings on an organism’s genome – scientists will be hard-pressed to tease out clear findings that resolve their debates once and for all.
The research has been published in Science Advances.
-- life.. finds a way.