Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Biological Sciences
First Advisor
Timothy Mousseau
Second Advisor
Elaine Ostrander
Abstract
Two free-breeding dog populations, one in Chernobyl, Ukraine, and the other on the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, exist on opposite sides of the globe, yet both hold unique scientific potential to further our understanding of free-breeding dog population dynamics and evolutionary processes related to their environments. In the following studies, blood samples from more than 400 individual Chernobyl dogs were collected and their genomes were analyzed alongside over 1500 purebred and 200 global free-breeding dogs, describing genetic relationships and the extent of admixture with purebred migrants. Importantly, the sampled Chernobyl dogs had long-term exposures to ionizing radiation because of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster, enabling investigation into the effects of these exposures on the dog genome by analyzing individual de novo mutation and mutation rates. Additionally, 187 modern and six historical genomes from Galápagos dogs were analyzed to investigate the population structure, ancestry, and genomic changes that have occurred in the population over time. Interestingly, our results suggest that historical Galápagos dogs, Chernobyl dogs, and free-breeding dog populations from Europe in general appeared to all share ancestry with purebred German Shepherd Dogs. The final chapter of this thesis describes the history of the German Shepherd Dog breed utilizing 15 modern and 10 historical genomes collected from museum specimens dating back to the origin of the breed in 1906.
Rights
© 2025, Gabriella Jean Spatola
Recommended Citation
Spatola, G. J.(2025). Exploring the Ancestry and Mutational Signatures of Free-Breeding Dogs from Chernobyl and the Galápagos Islands. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8387