Genetic Diversity Of Giant Panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca) In Wanglang And Baoxing Natural Reserves

Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the most endangered species in the world. It is an urgent work to research and evaluate the information on genetic diversity level of wild Giant Panda. Microsatellites are DNA sequences comprising a simple repeat motif of one to six bases (e.g. AT or CGT) that is repeated in tandem multiple times. It can fealty reflect personal feature, the parentage relationship, so it has become an ideal genetic marker and has been widely used in the protection of rare and endangered animal.Present study investigates the genetic diversity of the wild Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) populations in Wanglang and Baoxing.Forty-three microsatellite primer pairs were selected to scan genomes DNA extracted from blood tissue of domestic Giant Panda, twenty-nine of which had specified PCR products. Of these 29 primer pairs tested in PCR using genomes isolated from faeces of Giant Panda, thirteen highly polymorphic primer pairs have been identified and can be used in the identification and analysis of DNA from faeces.One hundred and seventy two DNA samples were extracted from faeces of Giant Panda from Wanglang and Baoxing. These samples were scanned by selected thirteen primer pairs. With the comparison of the results from PAGE, sixty-three DNA samples were appropriate to be used in the subsequent analysis.In tested thirty-three DNA samples from Wanglang, The polymorphism information contents (PIC) of the loci GP03 and AME15 were 0.247 and 0.152, respectively, and the rest eleven loci were all around 0.5, with an average of 0.612. In tested thirty DNA samples from Baoxing, PIC of twelve loci were above 0.5, with an average of 0.747, excluding the loci GP01, the PIC of which was 0.465. This result indicated that eleven of thirteen loci had highly polymorphism, and were appropriate for the identification of DNA from faeces and the genetype.Genetic diversity of Giant Panda was evaluated in sixty-three DNA samples extracted from wild panda's faeces in Wanglang and Baoxing. A total of one hundred and thirty alleles have been detected in the genetype of sixty-three DNA samples using the thirteen microsatillite primers. Among the alleles, thirty-five alleles were distinctive for the Giant Panda's in Wanglang; fifty-three alleles were distinctive for Baoxing; forty-six alleles were shared by Wanglang and Baoxing. The average number of alleles per locus of the two populations was 6.2 for Wanglang and 7.6 for Baoxing, respectively. The average heterozygosities detected was 0.488 for Wanglang and 0.553 for Baoxing, respectively. Present results revealed that Baoxing and Wanglang population share a moderate genetic diversity. In population genetics, F-statistics (also known as fixation indices) describe the level of heterozygosity in a population; the F_ST-value, 0.26, indicated thedistinct genetic differentiation between the populations in Wanglang and Baoxing. Assignment tests showed that no gene flow existed between these two populations.