New research co-led by Cornell University examines thousands of years of Arctic sled dog ancestry and reveals when and how the DNA of Siberian and Alaskan sled dogs mixed.
“There was a real concern among Siberian breeders – who mainly raced their dogs – that they were sending their dogs’ DNA samples for analysis, more for the context of health traits, and that they were getting back information about the breed’s ancestry stating their dog was not 100% Siberian husky,” says Heather Huson, a former sled dog racer and now associate professor of animal sciences at Cornell “Many (pedigree tests) said the Siberian huskies were some percentage of Alaskan husky or Alaskan sled dog.
The large-scale genomic study of the Siberian husky has revealed that sled dogs are descended from two different lineages of Arctic canids and emerged earlier than previously thought in the northeastern Siberian Arctic generations. The study also found that about half of all Siberian huskies bred for racing show introgression with European breeds.
Huson is co-corresponding author of “Comparative Population Genomics of Arctic Sled Dogs Reveals a Deep and Complex History,” published in Genome biology and evolution. The other corresponding author is Tracy Smith, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
Huson said her team’s findings on genomic history are an important tool in the effort to preserve ancient lineages, such as the Siberian husky, and their unique evolutionary identities.
“It was thought there was one Arctic lineage,” Huson said, “but what we discovered was there are two. One leads to our modern Siberian husky – smaller body size and stature – and the other leads to this larger body size and what we now see as Greenland sled dogs, and possibly the Alaskan malamutes.”
Understanding genomic history is essential, the authors wrote, for developing effective breed management policies and best practices.
“The more genetic diversity you have, the better your genetic health,” Huson said. “The somewhat admixed racing Siberian huskies bring this genetic diversity to the population, but confuse the original Arctic lineage that produced early Siberian huskies.”
For their study, researchers collected and analyzed DNA samples (or genomic data) from 344 dogs – mainly registered Siberian huskies, but also Alaskan malamutes, Alaskan sled dogs, Chukotka sled dogs, and one each of a German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, German Shorthaired Pointer. wiser, Samoyed and Saluki.
The researchers found that at least two different lineages of Arctic dogs existed in ancient Eurasia at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, which ended about 11,700 years ago. This finding significantly pushes back the origins of sled dogs in the northeastern Siberian Arctic, “with humans likely deliberately selecting dogs to perform different functions,” the authors wrote. This left concurrent breeding populations relatively reproductively isolated.
This work was supported by funding from UMBC, Neogen Genomics, and the Siberian Husky Club of America.
