BEIJING: Scientists have remoted the arena's oldest DNA evidence from pandas from a 22,000-year-old fossil found in China, and found out a new lineage of the species.
The record, revealed within the magazine Current Biology, shows that the ancient panda found in Cizhutuo Cave within the Guangxi Province of China separated from present-day pandas 144,000 to 227,000 years in the past, suggesting that it belonged to a definite crew no longer found these days.
"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," mentioned 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," mentioned Fu.
Very little has been identified about pandas' past, particularly in regions outside in their current vary in Shaanxi province or Gansu and Sichuan provinces.
Evidence means that pandas in the past were a lot more in style, nevertheless it has been unclear how those pandas were related to pandas of these days.
In the brand new learn about, researchers used refined easy methods to fish mitochondrial DNA from the ancient cave specimen.
That is a particular challenge because the specimen comes from a subtropical environment, which makes preservation and recovery of DNA tricky.
The researchers successfully sequenced nearly 150,000 DNA fragments and aligned them to the giant panda mitochondrial genome reference sequence to recover the Cizhutuo panda's whole mitochondrial genome.
They then used the brand new genome together with mitochondrial genomes from 138 present-day bears and 32 historic bears to construct a circle of relatives tree.
Their analysis shows that the cut up between the Cizhutuo panda and the ancestor of present-day pandas is going back about 183,000 years.
The Cizhutuo panda additionally possesses 18 mutations that will regulate the construction of proteins across six mitochondrial genes.
The researchers mentioned that those amino acid adjustments could also be related to the ancient panda's distinct habitat in Guangxi or most likely local weather variations during the Last Glacial Maximum.
The findings suggest that the ancient panda's maternal lineage had a long and unique history that differed from the maternal lineages resulting in present-day panda populations.
The researchers mentioned that their good fortune in capturing the mitochondrial genome additionally means that they may successfully isolate and analyse DNA from the ancient specimen's a lot 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 mentioned.
The record, revealed within the magazine Current Biology, shows that the ancient panda found in Cizhutuo Cave within the Guangxi Province of China separated from present-day pandas 144,000 to 227,000 years in the past, suggesting that it belonged to a definite crew no longer found these days.
"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," mentioned 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," mentioned Fu.
Very little has been identified about pandas' past, particularly in regions outside in their current vary in Shaanxi province or Gansu and Sichuan provinces.
Evidence means that pandas in the past were a lot more in style, nevertheless it has been unclear how those pandas were related to pandas of these days.
In the brand new learn about, researchers used refined easy methods to fish mitochondrial DNA from the ancient cave specimen.
That is a particular challenge because the specimen comes from a subtropical environment, which makes preservation and recovery of DNA tricky.
The researchers successfully sequenced nearly 150,000 DNA fragments and aligned them to the giant panda mitochondrial genome reference sequence to recover the Cizhutuo panda's whole mitochondrial genome.
They then used the brand new genome together with mitochondrial genomes from 138 present-day bears and 32 historic bears to construct a circle of relatives tree.
Their analysis shows that the cut up between the Cizhutuo panda and the ancestor of present-day pandas is going back about 183,000 years.
The Cizhutuo panda additionally possesses 18 mutations that will regulate the construction of proteins across six mitochondrial genes.
The researchers mentioned that those amino acid adjustments could also be related to the ancient panda's distinct habitat in Guangxi or most likely local weather variations during the Last Glacial Maximum.
The findings suggest that the ancient panda's maternal lineage had a long and unique history that differed from the maternal lineages resulting in present-day panda populations.
The researchers mentioned that their good fortune in capturing the mitochondrial genome additionally means that they may successfully isolate and analyse DNA from the ancient specimen's a lot 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 mentioned.
22k-yr-old fossil from China reveals long-lost panda lineage
![22k-yr-old fossil from China reveals long-lost panda lineage]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
July 17, 2018
Rating:
