The International Giant Panda Genome Project started in March 2008 with scientists from China, Britain, the United States, Denmark and Canada.

According to BGI Shenzhen scientists, data from the project is expected to have an extensive impact on various scientific areas such as ecology, evolution and sequencing technology.

A three-year-old female panda, named Jing Jing, from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda breeding in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, was chosen by scientists for the genome sequencing. Jing Jing was also the prototype of one of the five mascots of the Beijing Olympics.

“We have done such a huge amount of research that if we compile a book with the genome sequence, the height would be equal to the landmark 384-meter Diwang Tower of Shenzhen,” Wang said.

There are about 1,590 pandas living in China’s wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.

In 2007, there were 239 captive-bred giant pandas in the country.

Yang Huanming, another scientist at BGI Shenzhen, said his colleagues will work on mapping out a more detailed genome sequence of the panda by the end of this year.

Chinese scientists have made big improvements in gene studies and genome sequencing in the past few years through their own efforts and participation in a series of international projects, Yang said.

Chinese scientists have contributed to the genome sequencing of a rice paddy, silkworm, hen and pig. In October last year, they finished sequencing the first Han Chinese genome, Yang said.