Co-determining the entire genome of the first ancient giant panda

Sear remains of the new giant panda in Dongshan, Teng Chongjiang, Yunnan
Lai Xulong, a professor at the National Key Laboratory of Biological Geology and Environmental Geology of china University of Geology (Wuhan), successfully determined the entire genome of the first ancient giant panda in collaboration with researchers from Boztan University in Germany and the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Yunnan Province. The findings were published online May 9 in Current Biology.
habitat of wild giant pandas has declined sharply from ancient times to the present, leaving many fossil records in Zhoukoudian in the north, most of southern China and even in the vast areas of Southeast Asia in Vietnam and Myanmar. The first sample of ancient genome research of giant pandas is a completely new giant panda individual found in Dongshan, Teng Chongjiang, Yunnan Province, China, and the results of radiocarbon isotope measurement show that the individual existed about 5000 years ago, which is the latest fossil record of giant pandas found in the region to date.
using paleoDNA experimental methods and next-generation sequencing techniques to obtain a 1.2-fold coverage of the entire genome of giant pandas. Analysis of the genome found that the sample of the cynotestal giant panda represents a different and now extinct genetic linetail of giant pandas, which is differentiated from the common ancestral population of the living giant panda, predated the formation of three different geographical populations of the living giant panda, and the genetic exchange with the ancestral population of the living giant panda, so that some of the genes of the extinct genealogy survived in the gene pool of the living giant panda.
for species conservation, in addition to population size, the genetic diversity of species is another key factor affecting their evolution. This study determined that giant pandas lost a specific genetic linee during evolution at the cost of reduced genetic diversity, and that the extinction of a small number of genes in the genetic line line that penetrated into the gene pool of living giant pandas through population hybridization may help them better adapt to changing environments during future evolution. (Source: Tang Feng, China Science Daily)