Scientists are studying hundreds of dogs at the Chernobyl disaster site that have managed to survive in extremely harsh conditions. They hope that examining the animals' genetics will give them insight into how humans can live in the most brutal…
More than 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl roam among decaying, abandoned buildings in and around the closed plant – somehow still able to find food, breed and survive.
"We've had this golden opportunity" to lay the groundwork for answering a crucial question:"How do you survive in a hostile environment like this for 15 generations?" said geneticist Elaine Ostrander of the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the study's many authors. Researchers say most of the dogs they are studying appear to be descendants of pets that residents were forced to leave behind when they evacuated the area.
"That was a huge milestone for us," said Ostrander."And what's surprising is we can even identify families" – about 15 different ones."We can compare them and we can say: OK, what's different, what's changed, what's mutated, what's evolved, what helps you, what hurts you at the DNA level?" Ostrander said. This will involve separating non-consequential DNA changes from purposeful ones.
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