A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that scientists now know the gene that causes the color mutation in brown pandas.
According to Science, brown pandas are only found in the Shaanxi province in China and their color mutation is caused by a mutation in the gene Bace2.
The study explains that the gene Bace2, found in both brown and black pandas, was missing part of its genetic code that creates black fur. Brown pandas have two copies of this mutated Bace2 gene, which is why they grow brown fur instead of black.
History of the brown panda
There is only one brown panda living in captivity and his name is Qizai. He lives at the Louguantai Wild Animal Breeding and Protection Center in Xi’An, China, according to Scientific American. Only seven brown panda bears have been documented by scientists.
According to Business Insider, Qizai was abandoned by his mother and bullied by other pandas. But he’s not the only brown panda scientists studied.
The first brown panda scientists recorded was almost 40 years ago, a female they named Dandan, per Scientific American. There are supposedly only several hundred brown pandas left in the wild, per Bear Conservation.
The brown panda, also known as the Qinling panda due to being found only in the Qinling mountain range in Shaanxi, is a subspecies of the more common giant panda, per Medium.
Hu Yibo, a co-author of the study, told Scientific American, “Previous studies suggested that Qinling pandas may have been separated from Sichuan pandas around 300,000 years ago.”
Scientists have also found evidence that brown pandas existed in past Chinese dynasties. According to Smithsonian Magazine, archaeologists were excavating the tomb of Emperor Wen, who died in 157 B.C., when they found a giant panda skull and part of its skeletal remains in the tomb. Further studies revealed that it belonged to a brown panda.
How the gene changes their color
The study found that in the two copies of the gene Bace2, all brown pandas were missing the same 25 base pairs (a basic unit in a DNA or RNA strand), according to Scientific American. None of the black and white pandas had this sort of mutation.
This mutation causes the brown panda to have less melanosomes in their fur, per the study. Melanosomes are organelles responsible for hair color, according to Scientific American.
This would be the first time scientists have found a direct link between absent genetic segments and changes in hair color, per Science.