Zoonomia Project reveals genetic blueprint of 240 species of mammals

An international collaboration of more than 100 scientists has built and analyzed the world's largest comparative resource on mammalian genomics – including the genome of the Siberian Husky that led a sled dog team carrying a lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome, Alaska, in 1925.

The Zoonomia Project published 11 papers in the journal Science on Thursday that catalogue the diversity in the genomes of 240 species of mammals, representing more than 80% of mammalian families.

Led by Elinor Karlsson and Kerstin Lindblad-Toh at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the team of scientists sequenced and compared mammals' genomes, which provide instructions for development and growth.

They chose the name Zoonomia because it combines the Greek terms for “animal” and “governing laws."

Regulatory functions

Their findings point to parts of the genome that have not changed after millions of years of evolution – the parts that are the most important to build a mammal – and show how some traits, like the ability to hibernate, came about.

One of the studies, however, found at least 10% of the human genome is virtually unchanged across species.

These parts of the genome that have remained the same amount to "regulatory elements" with instructions for producing protein and other functions that are essential to health and fighting disease. More than 3 million of these were identified in the human genome, including many that were unknown.

“We can learn exciting things about how species diverged and adapted,” Zoonomia collaborator Beth Shapiro, a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Science.

Resilience from genetic diversity

Shapiro and her postdoc, Katie Moon, "sequenced DNA from a pencil eraser–size tissue sample from the 100-year-old sun-bleached belly of the stuffed Balto" displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Turns out Balto, the dog that ran 55 miles (88 kilometers) on the trail to Nome and received the bulk of the credit for saving the Alaskan town and nearby communities from an epidemic of diphtheria (and was the hero of a 1995 animated movie), was more genetically diverse than modern breeds, which might have helped him survive the brutal conditions.

But he also might have unduly hogged the spotlight.

Another Siberian Husky named Togo, younger and less experienced, ran 75 miles (120 kilometers), an exceptionally long and dangerous stretch. Balto was honored with statues in Anchorage, Alaska, and New York City's Central Park; Togo retired to Poland Spring, Maine.

Togo finally got his due in the spotlight, too, with a 2019 feature film.