SNP discovery in Microtus agrestis

Field voles (Microtus agrestis) are relatively common rodents in the UK and share many common genomic features with the laboratory mouse. In contrast to the laboratory mouse, however, they are exposed to a variable environment, food source, predators, pathogen pressure, etc. This makes them a useful model to understand how a genome evolves and functions in its natural environment. Whole genomes from 12 individual field voles , a mixture of sexes, were resequenced using Illumina platform at fairly low depth to identify SNPs. All individuals came from a population within Kielder Forest, Northumbria, UK.