{"id":127711,"date":"2024-11-19T17:20:50","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T10:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=127711"},"modified":"2024-11-19T17:20:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T10:20:50","slug":"geneticist-who-turned-foxes-into-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=127711","title":{"rendered":"Geneticist who \u2018turned foxes into dogs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>On the long train journey east from Moscow, Lyudmila Trut was watching the dizzying white plains of Siberia speed past her window. It was the autumn of 1958 and the recently married 25-year-old was bound for the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in the newly built \u201cscientific city\u201d of Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk, where her friend and mentor Dmitri Belyaev was spearing a genetic experiment to \u201cmake a dog out of a fox\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>An undergraduate at Moscow State University, where she studied animal behaviour and specialised in the behaviour of crabs, Trut was to be lead researcher. Foxes were far more complex than crabs but it was not only the ambition of the project that excited her. Belyaev was unlike any Soviet scientist she had ever<span class=\"paywall-EAB47CFD\"> met; he was not patronising or imperious, even though Trut, who was just over 5ft and wore her wavy brown hair short, seemed young for her age. His first question when she applied for the role in 1958 was: \u201cYou are now located on a fox farm that has several hundred foxes, and you need to select the 20 calmest ones for the experiment. How will you do it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">After reading Darwin\u2019s<i> The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication<\/i>, a study of how animals and plants have evolved through artificial selection, Belyaev had come to believe that the defining characteristic of a domesticated animal was its \u201ctameness\u201d and the experiment aimed, in essence, to fast-track the evolutionary process which had over centuries transformed wolves into dogs by selectively breeding for a particular trait: docility. \u201cWe have compressed into a few decades an ancient process that originally unfolded over thousands of years,\u201d Trut said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">The project was larger in scale than any in the history of Russian genetics, which had previously stuck to viruses, bacteria and flies. Belyaev and Trut chose as their test animal the silver fox, a canny, elusive and often vicious variant of the red fox that had never before been domesticated. They were famous for their glossy silver coats and Trut sourced her patient zeros \u2014 some 140 silver foxes \u2014 from fur farms across the Soviet Union. To find the right location for the experiment she travelled on slow trains across vast stretches of the wintry country, disembarking at remote stations, usually deep in the forest, to visit commercial farms, all of which were owned by the state. She finally settled on a farm called Lesnoi, some 225 miles from Novosibirsk.<\/p>\n<div id=\"2.2\">\n<div id=\"e98bdd72-0cfb-4bdd-affb-782fbe2a7ec4\">\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 responsive__PrimaryImg-sc-4v1r4q-3 hpWIYt\">\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<div style=\"background-color:#efefef\" class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:87.04318936877075%;position:relative;overflow:hidden\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trut with a domesticated Fox in 1974\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F8df6b2e4-e06b-490b-8cf7-616b1d80977c.jpg?crop=1505%2C1310%2C0%2C0\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 responsive__InsetCaptionStyle-sc-1io40fc-2 fkMBIX\">\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:10px\" class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<p>Trut with a domesticated Fox in 1974<\/p>\n<p>SVETLANA ARGUTINSKAYA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">It was fortunate that Lesnoi was so far from civilisation. The Fifties were a dangerous time to be a geneticist in the USSR and the team was working under the guise of increasing fur production. In the 1930s the pseudo-scientist Trofim Lysenko, who had risen up the ranks of the Communist Party by claiming to have invented a farming technique to triple crop yields, had initiated a widespread crackdown on the field of genetics. Stalin had branded genetics a \u201cfascist science\u201d and several researchers had been executed or thrown into prison camps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">In 1958 Lysenko created a committee and dispatched them to inspect the new institute in Siberia. \u201cCommittee members were snooping in the laboratories,\u201d said Trut, and when the premier Nikita Khrushchev learnt of the committee\u2019s unfavourable report he too paid them a visit. Khrushchev was \u201cvery discontented\u201d and the experiment was only spared because his daughter, Rada, a well-respected journalist and biologist, believed Lysenko to be a charlatan. She reportedly convinced her father to keep it open. <\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">Every year, Trut selected which foxes to breed by donning two-inch-thick protective gloves and placing a stick inside their cage, grading each fox\u2019s reaction to her intrusion from one to four. \u201cIn the first years the vast majority of the foxes seemed less like dogs than like fire-breathing dragons,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI am sure these low scorers would have loved to rip my hand off.\u201d The next generation seemed \u201cto tolerate, but not enjoy, the presence of humans\u201d but by the fourth and fifth the pups were wagging their tails as Trut approached. The sixth were whining, whimpering and licking her face, as a pet dog might do.<\/p>\n<div id=\"2.7\">\n<div id=\"a5461526-ed89-436a-8fe9-3971eec44137\">\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 responsive__PrimaryImg-sc-4v1r4q-3 hpWIYt\">\n<div class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<div style=\"background-color:#efefef\" class=\"tc-view__TcView-nuazoi-0 fPjBcr\">\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:150.0586166471278%;position:relative;overflow:hidden\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trut\u2019s 2017 book\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Ffd22df80-3a87-435e-a9b9-1cc1251ce099.jpg?crop=853%2C1280%2C0%2C0\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">\u201cThe elites\u201d, as Trut dubbed the 2 per cent that reacted in this way, appeared to \u201cyearn for human companionship\u201d. By 2017 that figure stood at about 70 per cent. \u201cThe elites charmed every human they met, no matter how toughened,\u201d she recalled. \u201cOne evening after the staff went home, Belyaev brought a famous army officer, a General Lukov, to our facility. Lukov was a formal man, hardened by the horrors of war. But when I opened a cage that housed one of the elite females and the fox scampered over and laid down next to me, the general\u2019s dignified demeanour melted away.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">Trut and Belyaev were able to show that the foxes responded to fear in a different way by measuring a steady decline in the hormone-producing adrenal gland, the flight or flight hormone, as well as an increase in serotonin \u2014 sometimes called the \u201chappiness hormone\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">As she recalled in <i>How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog),<\/i> published in 2017, the physical appearance of the foxes also changed in what we now know as \u201cdomestication syndrome\u201d. The camouflage coat of the wild foxes morphed into piebald splotches of white fur; their eyes were floppy instead of straight; they had shorter legs, curlier tails and more blunted snouts \u2014 and their faces were rounder. Their sex lives had also transformed: while wild female foxes had sex about once a year, tamer ones were more promiscuous. \u201cBefore our eyes,\u201d Trut said, \u201cthe \u2018Beast\u2019 has turned into \u2018Beauty\u2019, as the aggressive behaviour of our herd\u2019s wild progenitors entirely disappeared.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">To prove that the changes were genetic, Trut and Belyaev developed a test in which they moved embryos from a group of tame mothers into the wombs of another group of more aggressive foxes they had developed \u2014 \u201cwhat we thought of as a fox equivalent of Cerberus, the multiheaded hound of Hades that guards the gates of the Underworld. These were mean foxes.\u201d The pups behaved like their biological rather than surrogate mother, proving that the changes were indeed inherited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">By 1974 most of the tame foxes had fallen into the \u201celite\u201d category and to test further the bond that had developed between humans and the foxes, Trut suggested that she move into the small house on the farm with a fox called Pushinka (Russian for \u201ca tiny ball of fuzz\u201d), who was heavily pregnant. \u201cIn one of her favourite games I would hide a treat in my pocket, and she would try to snatch it out,\u201d Trut recalled. \u201cSometimes she would lie on her back, inviting me to pet her exposed belly.\u201d When Pushinka gave birth, she carried one of her pups over and laid it at Trut\u2019s feet; Trut would \u201cplay ball\u201d with the pups and \u201cif I popped out of the house for a bit, Pushinka would sometimes sit at the window, looking out in anticipation of my return\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">Such canine devotion was nothing new. Born just outside Moscow in 1933, Lyudmila Nikolayevna Trut was raised by a dog-loving mother who during the Second World War, when food was scarce, would feed the starving stray dogs and tell her daughter: \u201cIf we don\u2019t feed them, Lyudmila, how will they survive? They need people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">Lyudmila took her mother along when she moved to Siberia, as well as her husband, Volodya, an aviation mechanic, and their baby daughter Marina. She spent most of her time alone in unheated sheds with the foxes in temperatures that regularly dipped below minus 40C, and she was often lonely. Yet she loved the work and never wanted to leave, even when she continued alone after Belayaev died in 1985 \u2014 or when, after the collapse of the Soviet Union four years later, most of their funding dried up. They were eventually forced to sell some of the foxes to Scandinavian fur breeders or as exotic house pets. By 1999 there were only some 100 females and 30 males left. <\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">She was proud to have pioneered what is seen as one of the most ambitious long-term biological studies attempted. \u201cAs I look back on the experiment to which I have devoted three quarters of my life,\u201d she wrote in 2017, \u201cmy thoughts sometimes drift to Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry\u2019s classic story<i> The Little Prince <\/i>and the fox\u2019s admonition to the prince that \u201cyou become responsible forever for what you have tamed\u201d. <\/p>\n<p id=\"last-paragraph\" class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\"><b>Lyudmila Trut, geneticist, was born on November 6, 1933. She died on October 9, 2024, aged 90<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/obituaries\/article\/lyudmila-trut-obituary-geneticist-who-turned-foxes-into-dogs-fhcsxmmzs\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the long train journey east from Moscow, Lyudmila Trut was watching the dizzying white plains of Siberia speed past her window. It was the autumn of 1958 and the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=127711\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}