Scientists unravel secret behind rare brown-and-white Panda’s coats

The giant panda, regarded as the one with those dearest black-and-white colors is a well-known species throughout the globe, CNN reported.

Although only certain pandas are born with a set of red-and-white fur, several of such ones live only in one mountain range in China. Latest study might be showing that there is a reason behind the wild odd colouring of the white pandas.

The studies done on both the wild and captive pandas sufficiently suggest that these coat types are not the result of genetic uniformity in the dwindling panda population, but are instead a manifestation of several occurrences of natural variation in this species. 

The very first record of a brown panda, a female named Dandan found in 1985 and followed by fresh sightings increases the possibilities of such an anomaly fitting within the framework of panda inheritance.

In his comments at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology, Dr Fuwen Wei stated this unique colouring aspect is of the utmost importance and its regard among diverse conservation evaluations. 

Using the male brown panda named, Qizai, the researchers have managed to unravel many genetic secrets about the trait’s inheritance which can be useful in inbreeding programs of captive pandas.

Genetic analysis of this panda’s fur indicated of some brown fur that was characteristically different from the traditional black-and-white pandas with the differences attributed to the melanosomes, structures responsible for skin and hair pigmentation. 

As well as that, the scientists found the way of Qizai’s genetic lineage that showed his family relatives and the presence of an inherited trait that is linked to the Bace2 gene.