Draft genomic data of the Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is the only fully domesticated species in the Cervidae family, and is the only cervid with a circumpolar distribution. Unlike all other cervids, female reindeer regularly grow cranial appendages (antlers, the defining characteristics of cervids), as well as males. Moreover, reindeer milk contains more protein and less lactose than bovid milk. A high quality reference genome of this species will assist efforts to elucidate these and other important features in the reindeer. <br>We obtained 723.2 Gb (Gigabase) of raw reads by an Illumina Hiseq 4000 platform, and a 2.64 Gb final assembly, representing 95.7% of the estimated genome (2.76 Gb according to k-mer analysis), including 92.6% of expected genes according to BUSCO analysis. The contig N50 and scaffold N50 sizes were 89.7 kilo base (kb) and 0.94 mega base (Mb), respectively. We annotated 21,555 protein-coding genes and 1.07 Gb of repetitive sequences by de novo and homology-based prediction. Homology-based searches detected 159 rRNA, 547 miRNA, 1,339 snRNA and 863 tRNA sequences in the genome of R. tarandus. <br>Our results provide the first high-quality reference genome for the reindeer, and a valuable resource for studying evolution, domestication and other unusual characteristics of the reindeer.

驯鹿（Rangifer tarandus）是鹿科（Cervidae）中唯一完全驯化的物种，同时也是唯一具有环极地分布范围的鹿科动物。与其他所有鹿科动物不同，驯鹿的雌性个体与雄性一样，都会定期生长头部附属结构——鹿角，而鹿角正是鹿科动物的典型特征。此外，驯鹿乳汁的蛋白质含量高于牛科（Bovidae）乳汁，乳糖含量则更低。获取该物种的高质量参考基因组，将有助于阐明驯鹿的上述及其他重要生物学特征。
本研究依托Illumina Hiseq 4000测序平台，获得了723.2 Gb（吉碱基，Gigabase）的原始读段，最终组装得到2.64 Gb的基因组序列，覆盖预估基因组大小的95.7%（基于k-mer分析（k-mer analysis）预估为2.76 Gb）；经BUSCO分析（Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs）验证，该组装覆盖了92.6%的预期基因集。重叠群N50（contig N50）和支架N50（scaffold N50）分别为89.7 kb（千碱基，kilo base）和0.94 Mb（兆碱基，mega base）。通过从头预测与同源注释相结合的方法，研究团队注释得到21555个蛋白质编码基因，以及1.07 Gb的重复序列。同源比对检索还在驯鹿基因组中识别出159条核糖体RNA（rRNA）、547条微RNA（miRNA）、1339条小核RNA（snRNA）以及863条转运RNA（tRNA）序列。
本研究首次发布了驯鹿的高质量参考基因组，为研究驯鹿的演化、驯化及其他特殊生物学特征提供了宝贵的科研资源。