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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A reindeer’s yearning to travel can be read in its genes

The fingerprint of the last ice age can still be seen in the genomes of reindeer that make long migrations.
A wild caribou in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.

Should I stay or should I go? Some reindeer, also known as caribou, are homebodies; others migrate more than 1,000 kilometres a year. Credit: Mark Bradley, Parks Canada (CC-BY 4.0)

Some reindeer make epic migrations of more than 1,000 kilometres a year, whereas others stick close to home. Scientists have now linked a reindeer’s tendency to migrate and its genetic heritage1.

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Nature 602, 365 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00357-3

References

  1. Cavedon, M. et al. PLoS Genet. 18, e1009974 (2022).

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