Feral Dog Chernobyl
153 Feral Dog Chernobyls in the atlas. Every number on this page has a source.
153 Feral Dog Chernobyls in the Sniff Atlas. Population-genetic snapshot, Mendelian carrier frequencies from Donner 2023, and the data substrate's release version, sample sizes, and evidence tier on every claim.
In the atlas, the Feral Dog Chernobyl clusters consistently as Feral Dog Chernobyl (100% of the 153 dogs here). Genetic diversity is high (mean heterozygosity 0.3627), reflecting either a mixed-breed cluster or breeds with broad genetic backgrounds. At the trait loci, MSRB3 runs lower than average (21% here vs 80%); BMP3 runs lower than average (12% here vs 66%). Dogs here sit in a relatively sparse region of the atlas, fewer close neighbors than typical.
Ranks 95 of 107 on the bottleneck severity scale, in the upper quartile of genetic diversity. Mean heterozygosity is 0.363, notably high, indicates broad genetic background.
Closest genetic neighbors in the atlas: village dog Crusade, village dog East Russia, Feral Dog Capeyork, village dog Ukraine, and Polish Lowland Sheepdog.
What the genome says about Feral Dog Chernobyl
Computed from the 18,477 research dogs in the Atlas.
- Village Dog Crusade1.26
- Village Dog East Russia1.49
- Feral Dog Capeyork1.93
- Village Dog Ukraine1.94
- Polish Lowland Sheepdog2.04
Frequency of the alternate allele in this breed at each locus's representative SNP.
| IGF1 | 62% |
| HMGA2 | 44% |
| SMAD2 | 81% |
| LCORL | 81% |
| STC2 | 36% |
| ADAMTS17 | 27% |
| FGF4·CFA18 | 66% |
| FGF4·CFA12 | 89% |
| RSPO2 | 24% |
| FGF5 | 75% |
| KRT71 | 81% |
| MC1R | 80% |
| MSRB3 | 21% |
| BMP3 | 12% |
| SMOC2 | 48% |
What does the genome say about how a Feral Dog Chernobyl looks?
Feral Dog Chernobyls look the way they do because of a small set of fixed and near-fixed morphology genes that, taken together, define the visible breed. Each translation below pairs the gene with the trait an owner actually sees, the breed's allele frequency at that locus, and a one-clause causal phrase.
Size and build
IGF1 sits at 62% for the small-body allele. IGF1 is the gene that sets dog body size from Chihuahua to Great Dane. Intermediate frequencies typically keep a breed in the mid-sized range rather than tipping toward the larger working forms.
HMGA2 sits at 44%. HMGA2 is a chromosome-10 size locus that acts together with IGF1, and intermediate frequencies reflect partial commitment to the dominant size variant.
SMAD2 sits at 81% at the chromosome-7 height locus.
LCORL sits at 81% at the NCAPG/LCORL height locus on chromosome 3.
STC2 sits at 36%.
ADAMTS17 is at 27%, the lower-frequency allele in this breed.
Leg length
The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 18 sits at 66%. This is the leg-length variant. The intermediate frequency means some dogs in this breed carry the short-legged allele and some do not.
The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 12 is near-fixed at 89%, the chondrodystrophic variant associated with intervertebral disc disease risk in breeds that carry it.
Coat type, length, and color
RSPO2 is at 24% for the furnishings allele. The breed does not carry the eyebrows-and-mustache pattern of Wheatens, Schnauzers, or wire-haired terriers.
FGF5 sits at 75% for the long-coat variant. Coat length is influenced by other loci as well, so intermediate FGF5 frequencies do not always correspond to intermediate visible coat lengths.
KRT71 sits at 81% for the wavy/curly variant. Coat curl varies across individuals at this intermediate frequency, and visible expression is also influenced by modifier loci.
MC1R sits at 80% at the representative SNP. MC1R controls the switch between red-to-gold pigment and black-to-brown pigment, with the e/e homozygous genotype producing the gold-to-red spectrum. Substrate frequencies at this SNP depend on the array's polarity, so visible coat color in the breed is a more reliable indicator than this single number.
Ears
MSRB3 is at 21% for the drop-ear allele, keeping the breed's ears upright and prick.
Skull shape
BMP3 is at 12%, keeping the breed in the dolichocephalic, long-headed form.
SMOC2 sits at 48%, contributing to the breed's moderate head shape.
Where every number on this page came from.
This page draws on three primary data sources. Carrier frequencies for the Mendelian section come from Donner et al. 2023 (CC-BY-4.0). We grade these data at evidence Limited because the cohort is a direct-to-consumer ascertainment, which biases toward owners who chose to test their dogs. The panel also uses tag-SNP proxies for some variants rather than direct causal-variant assays. Limited is a study-design grade, not a quality grade: the Donner cohort is the largest open canine-genotype dataset in existence and we are grateful for it. We rate the confounding MEDIUM.
Population-genetic dimensions (heterozygosity, intra-breed PCA distance, nearest neighbors, trait-locus frequencies) come from CanVAS (Brundage 2026), harmonized through the Sniff Atlas. The exact release date and verification commit are pinned at the bottom of the page so a researcher can trace a number back to a specific snapshot. The disease-gene-variant graph comes from OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals; Nicholas, Tammen, and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; retrieved April 2026, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).
What this page does not yet have. Inheritance modes and per-disease penetrance evidence from Donner 2023 are now in the structured data for every variant the panel covers. Mondo, OMIM, Ensembl, and HGNC cross-references on gene pages remain pending — they arrive in December 2026 alongside the imputed 9.67M-variant CanVAS dataset via the OMIA SQL dump absorption. Until then, gene IDs carry NCBI Gene and OMIA phene URLs only; the wider human-homolog and disease-ontology cross-reference set fills in with that release.
How to cite this page. The computed dimensions on this page are derived from the open Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 (Gehring 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.20566358, CC-BY 4.0). Full citation formats including BibTeX, RIS, and CITATION.cff at sniff.world/cite.
We have 153 feral dog chernobyls. We do not have yours.
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- Donner J, Anderson H, Davison S, et al. (2023). Frequency and distribution of 152 genetic disease variants in over 1,000,000 mixed-breed and purebred dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651
- Brundage J, et al. (2026). CanVAS: a harmonized canine variant atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
- Nicholas, F.W., Tammen, I., & Sydney Informatics Hub. (2026). Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) [dataset]. The University of Sydney. https://omia.org. doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (retrieved April 2026).