The sled dog Balto has been celebrated in books and movies for his role in delivering desperately needed diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska, in 1925. He belonged to a population of small, fast, and fit sled dogs imported from Siberia. By sequencing his genome from his taxidermied remains and analyzing these data in the context of large comparative and canine datasets, scientists now show that Balto and his working sled dog contemporaries were more genetically diverse than modern breeds and may have carried variants that helped them survive the harsh conditions of 1920s Alaska.
It has been almost 100 years since Balto helped save the community of Nome, Alaska, from a diphtheria outbreak.
Today, Balto symbolizes the indomitable spirit of the sled dog.
He is immortalized in statue and film, and is physically preserved and on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Balto represents a dog population that was reputed to tolerate harsh conditions at a time when northern communities were reliant on sled dogs.
Investigating Balto’s genome sequence using technologies for sequencing degraded DNA offers a new perspective on this historic population.
“Balto’s fame and the fact that he was taxidermied gave us this cool opportunity 100 years later to see what that population of sled dogs would have looked like genetically and to compare him to modern dogs,” said Dr. Katherine Moon, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz.
“I was enthralled growing up with sled dogs,” said Dr. Heather Huson, a researcher at Cornell University.
“They’re amazing athletes, they’re fast, but they have a lot of endurance. Mentally, they have to be tough.”
“What are the genes that make them an awesome sled dog? Why can they do these amazing things that your average dog can’t do?”
“While Balto was clearly a sled dog, his owner, Leonhard Seppala, was one of the founding breeders of the Siberian husky, raising the potential for…
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