{"id":246071,"date":"2026-10-28T21:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T02:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/chornobyl-dog-population-shows-genetic-signatures-of-directional-selection"},"modified":"2026-10-28T21:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T02:13:50","slug":"chornobyl-dog-population-shows-genetic-signatures-of-directional-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/chornobyl-dog-population-shows-genetic-signatures-of-directional-selection","title":{"rendered":"Chornobyl dog population shows genetic signatures of directional selection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The latest research on the wild population of dogs in Chornobyl reveals that the genetic differences between these dogs and other similarly isolated dog populations are likely evidence of directional selection, not mutation. The work suggests a potential association between genetic selection and environmental variables and could advance understanding of local adaptation and genomic resilience in contaminated environments. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4425\/17\/10\/1195\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> appears in <i>Genes<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, researchers had looked at genetic differences in two populations of dogs: one located at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and the other in Chornobyl City, approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. They found that the genetics of Chornobyl City dogs were very similar to dog populations in Russia, Poland and the surrounding areas, whereas those from the NPP had some distinct differences\u2014specifically in regions associated with DNA repair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis work ties up some of the loose ends from our previous work, where in characterizing the population\u2019s genetic structure we found that while these two dog groups are geographically very close, they have a very high degree of genetic difference, and those differences aren\u2019t due to mutation,\u201d said Megan Dillon, a postdoctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest research on the wild population of dogs in Chornobyl reveals that the genetic differences between these dogs and other similarly isolated dog populations are likely evidence of directional selection, not mutation. The work suggests a potential association between genetic selection and environmental variables and could advance understanding of local adaptation and genomic resilience [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,873],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-nuclear-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/630"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}