Scientists have sequenced and analyzed the genome of the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), one of the world’s smallest mammals, with an average body mass of about 2 grams. This reference-quality genome will be an important resource for research on mammalian development, metabolism, and body size control.
The Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus). Image credit: Trebol-a / CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed.
Also known as the white-toothed pygmy shrew, the Etruscan shrew is recognized as one of the smallest mammals living today.
With a body weight ranging from 1.2 to 2.7 grams and dimensions spanning 3.6 to 5.3 cm (1.4-2.1 inches) in length, this species has a remarkably large body surface area to volume ratio.
As a result, the shrew has an exceptionally high metabolic rate, which requires a daily food consumption approximating 1.5 to 2 times its body mass.
Due to these unique physiological characteristics, the Etruscan shrew has become a valuable species to the scientific community, significantly contributing to various fields of research, such as behavioral science and neuroscience.
“A high-quality genome assembly is an essential reference to enable accurate high throughput data analysis,” said Dr. Yury Bukhman, a computational biologist at the Morgridge Institute.
“It will provide valuable insights into the mechanisms of body size control and metabolic rate, as well as facilitate comparative biological investigations.”
In their research, Dr. Bukhman and his colleagues sequenced and assembled the genome of a male Etruscan shrew using protocols developed by the Vertebrate Genomes Project.
“Our new Etruscan shrew genome is the first chromosome-level genome assembly of the order Eulipotyphla,” they said.
The authors manually curated the primary assembly and identified 22 chromosomes, including X and Y sex chromosomes.
They also identified 39,091 genes, 19,819 of which are protein-coding genes.
“We found that there are relatively few segmental duplications in the shrew genome,” Dr. Bukhman said.
“This result does not necessarily correlate to the diminutive size of the shrew itself.”
“While shrews belong to a different mammalian order, some similarly small rodents have lots of segmental duplications, and the house mouse is kind of a champion in that sense that it has the most. So, it’s not a matter of size.”
The results were published in the journal Scientific Data.
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Y.V. Bukhman et al. 2024. Chromosome level genome assembly of the Etruscan shrew Suncus etruscus. Sci Data 11, 176; doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-03011-x
