Ecobreves – BRAZIL : Mapping the Jaguar Genome

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 28 2012 (IPS) - Deciphering the gene map of the jaguar (Panthera onca) is the goal of a new project being jointly undertaken by a number of Brazilian institutions. The jaguar is the world’s third largest feline after the lion and the tiger, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

Today it is a near threatened species throughout the hemisphere, particularly as a result of the loss and fragmentation of its habitat and hunting. The project will attempt to map the genome of a specimen living in the Pantanal, a tropical wetland biome in central-western Brazil.

The researchers will subsequently analyze genetic information on jaguars from other regions of the Americas, in order to gather data on the characteristics that contribute to the adaptation of the species to different environments.

“We will gain a greater understanding of the evolutionary history of the jaguar, which will help us to develop more precise strategies for its conservation,” researcher Luiz Lehmann Coutinho told Tierramérica.

The project is being carried out by the Luiz de Queiroz School of Higher Agricultural Studies and the University of São Paulo, with the support of the State of São Paulo Research Foundation.