BEIJING: Scientists have isolated the arena's oldest DNA evidence from pandas from a 22,000-year-old fossil present in China, and discovered a brand new lineage of the species.
The report, revealed within the journal Current Biology, shows that the ancient panda present in Cizhutuo Cave within the Guangxi Province of China separated from present-day pandas 144,000 to 227,000 years ago, suggesting that it belonged to a distinct group no longer discovered as of late.
"Using a single complete mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence, we find a distinct mitochondrial lineage, suggesting that the Cizhutuo panda, while genetically more closely related to present-day pandas than other bears, has a deep, separate history from the common ancestor of present-day pandas," stated Qiaomei Fu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"This really highlights that we need to sequence more DNA from ancient pandas to really capture how their genetic diversity has changed through time and how that relates to their current, much more restricted and fragmented habitat," stated Fu.
Very little has been recognized about pandas' previous, particularly in regions outside in their present vary in Shaanxi province or Gansu and Sichuan provinces.
Evidence suggests that pandas prior to now were much more popular, but it has been unclear how the ones pandas were associated with pandas of as of late.
In the brand new learn about, researchers used subtle the best way to fish mitochondrial DNA from the ancient cave specimen.
That is a particular challenge since the specimen comes from a subtropical atmosphere, which makes preservation and restoration of DNA tricky.
The researchers successfully sequenced just about 150,000 DNA fragments and aligned them to the large panda mitochondrial genome reference sequence to get better the Cizhutuo panda's complete mitochondrial genome.
They then used the brand new genome along side mitochondrial genomes from 138 present-day bears and 32 historical bears to construct a circle of relatives tree.
Their analysis shows that the split between the Cizhutuo panda and the ancestor of present-day pandas is going again about 183,000 years.
The Cizhutuo panda also possesses 18 mutations that will alter the construction of proteins across six mitochondrial genes.
The researchers stated that the ones amino acid changes may be associated with the ancient panda's distinct habitat in Guangxi or most likely local weather differences during the Last Glacial Maximum.
The findings recommend that the ancient panda's maternal lineage had a protracted and distinctive history that differed from the maternal lineages resulting in present-day panda populations.
The researchers stated that their good fortune in taking pictures the mitochondrial genome also suggests that they might successfully isolate and analyse DNA from the ancient specimen's much more expansive nuclear genome.
"Comparing the Cizhutuo panda's nuclear DNA to present-day genome-wide data would allow a more thorough analysis of the evolutionary history of the Cizhutuo specimen, as well as its shared history with present-day pandas," Fu stated.
The report, revealed within the journal Current Biology, shows that the ancient panda present in Cizhutuo Cave within the Guangxi Province of China separated from present-day pandas 144,000 to 227,000 years ago, suggesting that it belonged to a distinct group no longer discovered as of late.
"Using a single complete mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence, we find a distinct mitochondrial lineage, suggesting that the Cizhutuo panda, while genetically more closely related to present-day pandas than other bears, has a deep, separate history from the common ancestor of present-day pandas," stated Qiaomei Fu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"This really highlights that we need to sequence more DNA from ancient pandas to really capture how their genetic diversity has changed through time and how that relates to their current, much more restricted and fragmented habitat," stated Fu.
Very little has been recognized about pandas' previous, particularly in regions outside in their present vary in Shaanxi province or Gansu and Sichuan provinces.
Evidence suggests that pandas prior to now were much more popular, but it has been unclear how the ones pandas were associated with pandas of as of late.
In the brand new learn about, researchers used subtle the best way to fish mitochondrial DNA from the ancient cave specimen.
That is a particular challenge since the specimen comes from a subtropical atmosphere, which makes preservation and restoration of DNA tricky.
The researchers successfully sequenced just about 150,000 DNA fragments and aligned them to the large panda mitochondrial genome reference sequence to get better the Cizhutuo panda's complete mitochondrial genome.
They then used the brand new genome along side mitochondrial genomes from 138 present-day bears and 32 historical bears to construct a circle of relatives tree.
Their analysis shows that the split between the Cizhutuo panda and the ancestor of present-day pandas is going again about 183,000 years.
The Cizhutuo panda also possesses 18 mutations that will alter the construction of proteins across six mitochondrial genes.
The researchers stated that the ones amino acid changes may be associated with the ancient panda's distinct habitat in Guangxi or most likely local weather differences during the Last Glacial Maximum.
The findings recommend that the ancient panda's maternal lineage had a protracted and distinctive history that differed from the maternal lineages resulting in present-day panda populations.
The researchers stated that their good fortune in taking pictures the mitochondrial genome also suggests that they might successfully isolate and analyse DNA from the ancient specimen's much more expansive nuclear genome.
"Comparing the Cizhutuo panda's nuclear DNA to present-day genome-wide data would allow a more thorough analysis of the evolutionary history of the Cizhutuo specimen, as well as its shared history with present-day pandas," Fu stated.
22k-yr-old fossil from China reveals long-lost panda lineage
![22k-yr-old fossil from China reveals long-lost panda lineage]()
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June 20, 2018
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