2018/12/01 by Lee Alan Dugatkin · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Human-Animal Interaction Studies #Nutrition, Genetics, and Disease
paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s12052-018-0090-x
openalex publication_date 2018/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
For the last 59 years a team of Russian geneticists led by Lyudmila Trut have been running one of the most important biology experiments of the 20th, and now 21st, century. The experiment was the brainchild of Trut’s mentor, Dmitri Belyaev, who, in 1959, began an experiment to study the process of domestication in real time. He was especially keen on understanding the domestication of wolves to dogs, but rather than use wolves, he used silver foxes as his subjects. Here, I provide a brief overview of how the silver fox domestication study began and what the results to date have taught us (experiments continue to this day). I then explain just how close this study came to being shut down for political reasons during its very first year.