​Comparative genomics of Balto, a famous historic dog, captures lost diversity of 1920s sled dogs
Moon, Katherine L. (University of California. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Huson, Heather J. (Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Department of Animal Sciences)
Morrill, Kathleen (University of Massachusetts Medical School. Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology)
Wang, Ming-Shan (University of California. Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
Li, Xue (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)
Srikanth, Krishnamoorthy (Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Department of Animal Sciences)
Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin (Uppsala University. Department of Medical Biochemistry & Microbiology)
Svenson, Gavin J. (Cleveland Museum of Natural History)
Karlsson, Elinor K. (University of Massachusetts Medical School. Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology)
Shapiro, Beth (University of California. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	We reconstruct the phenotype of Balto, the heroic sled dog renowned for transporting diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in 1925, using evolutionary constraint estimates from the Zoonomia alignment of 240 mammals and 682 genomes from dogs and wolves of the 21st century. Balto shares just part of his diverse ancestry with the eponymous Siberian husky breed. Balto's genotype predicts a combination of coat features atypical for modern sled dog breeds, and a slightly smaller stature. He had enhanced starch digestion compared with Greenland sled dogs and a compendium of derived homozygous coding variants at constrained positions in genes connected to bone and skin development. We propose that Balto's population of origin, which was less inbred and genetically healthier than modern breeds, was adapted to the extreme environment of 1920s Alaska.
Grants:	European Commission 864203
Note:	Tomàs Marquès-Bonet forma part del Zoonomia Consortium
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Published in:	Science, Vol. 380 Num. 6643 (April 2023) , art. eabn5887, ISSN 1095-9203

DOI: 10.1126/science.abn5887
PMID: 37104591

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