ArticleScience (New York, N.Y.)2023
Comparative genomics of Balto, a famous historic dog, captures lost diversity of 1920s sled dogs.
Article in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Advances in genomics-driven genetic decoding and genomic design breeding in tomato.Horticulture research · 2026Article
- Article
- Genetic testing predicts appearance but not behavior in dogs.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A 120-y time series of genomes reveals the consequences of closed breeding in German Shepherd Dogs.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- CloseRead: a tool for assessing assembly errors in immunoglobulin loci applied to vertebrate long-read genome assemblies.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Comparative Population Genomics of Arctic Sled Dogs Reveals a Deep and Complex History.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Improving data archiving practices in ancient genomics.Scientific data · 2024Article
- The Dogs of Tsenacomoco: Ancient DNA Reveals the Presence of Local Dogs at Jamestown Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century.American antiquity · 2024Article
- Balto and Togo during the cold winter of Alaska (1925): the two canine heroes in the fight against diphtheria.Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · 2024Article
- Analysis of the gut microbiome in sled dogs reveals glucosamine- and activity-related effects on gut microbial composition.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 20 institutions in 10 countries.
Funding
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 that of modern breeds, was adapted to the extreme environment of 1920s Alaska.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.