Genomic resources for the North American water vole (Microtus richardsoni) and the montane vole (Microtus montanus)

BackgroundVoles of the genus Microtus are important research organisms, yet genomic resources in the genus are lacking. Providing such resources would benefit future studies of immunology, phylogeography, cryptic diversity, and more. FindingsWe sequenced and assembled nuclear genomes from two subspecies of water vole (Microtus richardsoni) and from the montane vole (Microtus montanus). The water vole genomes were sequenced with Illumina and 10X Chromium plus Illumina sequencing, resulting in assemblies with ~1,600,000 and ~30,000 scaffolds respectively. The montane vole was assembled into ~13,000 scaffolds using Illumina sequencing also. In addition to the nuclear assemblies, mitochondrial genome assemblies were also performed for both species. We conducted a structural and functional annotation for the best water vole nuclear genome, which resulted in ~24,500 annotated genes, with 83% of these receiving functional annotations. Finally, we find that assembly quality statistics for our nuclear assemblies fall within the range of genomes previously published in the genus Microtus, making the water vole and montane vole genomes useful additions to currently available genomic resources.