Mus castaneus genome sequencing

In this project we will sequence the genomes of several wild-derived mice of M. castaneus origin to study the population genomics of these mice. With the exception of humans, the biology of the house mouse is better studied than any other mammal, and mouse models have proved invaluable for understanding the basis of human Mendelian disease. The analysis of genetic variation within and between species has the potential to uncover the basis of complex diseases, but this may be hindered by the small historical population size (Ne) of humans. Because the effectiveness of selection is proportional to Ne, subtle deleterious effects of mutations may be difficult to quantify in humans. We therefore plan to sequence wild mice of M. castaneus origin which have a significantly higher Ne. We initially plan mapped to reference and then de novo assembly of each mouse.

本项目将对数只源自卡斯泰小家鼠（Mus castaneus，缩写M. castaneus）的野生个体开展基因组测序，以解析该类群的群体基因组学特征。除人类外，小家鼠的生物学研究程度为所有哺乳动物之最，其作为动物模型在阐释人类孟德尔遗传病的发病机制方面极具价值。对物种内及物种间遗传变异的分析，有望揭示复杂疾病的分子基础，但人类的历史有效种群大小（Ne）较小，这一局限可能会阻碍相关研究的推进。由于选择作用的有效性与Ne呈正比关系，人类体内突变所产生的轻微有害效应往往难以量化。因此，本项目计划对源自M. castaneus的野生小家鼠进行测序，该类群的Ne显著更高。我们初步拟定的研究流程为：先将测序数据比对至参考基因组，随后对每只小鼠的基因组进行从头组装。