Data from: Characterization of the transcriptome, nucleotide sequence polymorphism, and natural selection in the desert adapted mouse Peromyscus eremicus

As a direct result of intense heat and aridity, deserts are thought to be
among the most harsh of environments, particularly for their mammalian
inhabitants. Given that osmoregulation can be challenging for these
animals, with failure resulting in death, strong selection should be
observed on genes related to the maintenance of water and solute balance.
One such animal, Peromyscus eremicus, is native to the desert regions of
the southwest United States and may live its entire life without oral
fluid intake. As a first step toward understanding the genetics that
underlie this phenotype, we present a characterization of the P. eremicus
transcriptome. We assay four tissues (kidney, liver, brain, testes) from a
single individual and supplement this with population level renal
transcriptome sequencing from 15 additional animals. We identified a set
of transcripts undergoing both purifying and balancing selection based on
estimates of Tajima’s D. In addition, we used the branch-site test to
identify a transcript—Slc2a9, likely related to desert
osmoregulation—undergoing enhanced selection in P. eremicus relative to a
set of related non-desert rodents.