Mon 26th September, 2011
Professor James Crabbe, the Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts, Technologies and Science (CATS) at the University of Bedfordshire has helped produce a paper explaining why pandas only eat bamboo.
The paper was a joint effort between the University, experts from the Fudan University in Shanghai and biologists from Tokyo and Tibet universities, who James met at a conference at Tibet University in Lhasa several years ago.
Professor Crabbe said: “It is a computational biology paper addressing the question - important to evolution as well as to conservation - as to why giant pandas eat bamboo.
“We found the answer involves dopamine metabolism genes in determining pandas' food choice. This work also suggests a new direction in molecular evolution studies behind the dietary switch over two million years ago.
“It has been very exciting and enjoyable to work with my collaborators in Fudan University,” he said.
He and his collaborators have been working on this topic since the complete giant panda genome sequence was published in January 2010.
The paper has been published on the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication, PloS One
Latest news» 2011» September» Professor’s paper on panda’s strange diet published
