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Scientists and volunteers plan reviving an ancient dog breed - the Yakutian hunting Laika. Experts told TASS why the revival and the traditions use of those dogs would require DNA samples, what mistakes the Soviet dog handlers made.
DNA and more
Enthusiasts from the local Bayanai hunting club are reviving population Yakutian hunting Laika. Recently scientists from the North-Eastern Federal University and the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation (South Korea) have joined them. They say, about 200 hunting Laikas now live in the region - the population in central Yakutia was almost lost in diseases in the middle XX century.
"We began collecting their DNA samples to see specific markers this breed may have. Enthusiasts want to have it registered, and they have asked us to help them with putting together the breed's features," an expert at the Molecular Paleontology Center of the North's Applied Ecology Research Institute Lena Grigoryeva told TASS.
Luckily, the researchers managed to find in Yakutia the breed samples, though the gods were too old to reproduce, thus their tissues' samples were taken to clone the breed. In summer 2017, the Korean Sooam Foundation presented to hunters two cloned puppies of Yakutian hunting Laika, who they had cloned together with the University's scientists. The puppies are called Kerecheene and Belekh, which in Yakutian mean "beautiful girl" and "gift."
These dog's puppies would be used to revive the breed. According to Grigoryeva, the cloned...