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Published online 12 March 2008 | Nature 452, 141 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452141g
News in Brief
Chinese scientists lead panda genome project
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Is this really a conservation project? I note, in the first line, conservation biologists make up part of the team. Surely, this will be an expensive project. If persistence of the Panda is the general goal, there are far better ways to spend resources.
can't agree more
It is kind of wasting tax-payers' money. Sequencing this species contributes nothing to human life, nor help to the conservation of this species.
I don't think it's a waste. Sequencing the genome can help us understand why Pandas are less competitive in wild life and help their conservation. There is a long list of wasting activities: going to war in foreign countries, eating junk food, etc. But sequencing genomes of other species definitely doesn't belong to it.
Although I agree with Jie Zheng that strictly it may not be considered a waste, cause there can always be some value of doing such "science", I have to stand along with all the others to show my opposition for such projects. First, there is no scientific evidence shown that "Pandas are less competitive in wild life". Pandas may be less competitive than Homo Sapiens, but so do almost all other species on this pale blue dot. In fact, pandas are more competitive than many other species who coexisted with them millions of years ago and survived the ice ages. Second, in terms of the economics of panda conservation, the opportunity cost of this kind of project is huge. The same money, should it be spent on habitat protection and restoration and poverty alleviation, would create much more positive impact on the long-term plight of this lovely species and also the temperate forest ecosystem that they live in. But anyway since it's already decided, let's be positive and hope that the results can be used for conservation in the most right way possible. For example, I'm wondering whether the study can help us find the level of inbreeding depression in the current in-captive panda populations, which can be an important indicator to evaluate the "achievement" and the future of the global panda breeding efforts, which sucked way more money than this project!!!
I agree with the sentiment that this could be a poor use of money in conservation terms. Where is the evidence that the problems pandas face in the wild have a solution in knowing their genes better? Knowing the genome may contribute to a better understanding of pandas scientifically, and perhaps improve captive breeding efforts, but not necessarily conservation. A better assessment of value may be found in comparing what the money used for this study could accomplish if used in other conservation efforts. As well, the cost of sequencing a genome is dropping rapidly, so perhaps it is not as expensive as one might fear. The project is supposed to take only six months, far quicker than the early days of sequencing.