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ChinaScience

‘A brand-new discovery’: Chinese scientists uncover genetic secret behind brown pandas

  • Researchers find genetic mutation in pigmentation-linked Bace2 gene appears to cause rare colour variation in China’s most beloved animal
  • Only seven brown pandas have ever been documented – all of them hailing from the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi province

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Qizai, who was found in the wild as a cub, is the world’s only brown panda living in captivity. Photo: Weibo / CCTV
Victoria Bela
Chinese scientists say they have discovered the genetic mutation behind brown-and-white giant pandas, a rare variant of the country’s most beloved animal.
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Only seven brown pandas have ever been identified. The first to be discovered – a female named Dandan – was found in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province in 1985.

Since then, scientists have speculated about how the colour variation occurs. Some believed that an inherited mutation might cause reduced fur pigmentation, but until now there had been no evidence to support this theory.

A team with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Zoology identified an inherited recessive genetic mutation that appears to cause the hypopigmentation. They shared their findings in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

Brown pandas like Qizai, pictured here, also have smaller skulls than their black-and-white counterparts, according to scientists. Photo: Zhou Wenliang / Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology
Brown pandas like Qizai, pictured here, also have smaller skulls than their black-and-white counterparts, according to scientists. Photo: Zhou Wenliang / Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology
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