What’s black and white and read all over? The giant panda genome. All 2.4 billion DNA base pairs of a 3-year-old female panda named Jingjing have been cataloged, researchers report online December 13 in Nature. The information will help researchers understand panda traits such as finicky diets. A thorough understanding of panda genetics may aid conservation efforts for the endangered bear.
“I was really thrilled to read this,” says conservation scientist Donald Lindburg, former head of the Office of Giant Panda Conservation at the Zoological Society of San Diego.
An international consortium led by scientists in China found that the panda genome is smaller than the human genome, which comprises about 3 billion base pairs. Despite the difference in total size, the panda genome contains an estimated 21,000 genes that encode proteins, a number similar to that of humans.