Mustela lutreola (European mink) genome, mMusLut3, sequence data
The European mink (Mustela lutreola) is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to Europe. The European mink is listed by the IUCN as critically endangered due to an ongoing reduction in numbers, declining by more than 50% over the past three generations (from Wikipedia entry). This blood sample of a male was taken during a routine veterinary examination, in accordance with the principles of animal welfare; collected from a captive born animal in Germany. The sample was used to sequence Hi-C scaffolding for the mMusLut2 reference assembly for the Vertebrate Genomes Project, and is part of a project coordinated by Jakub Skorupski and The European mink whole genome sequencing consortium that includes the University of Szczecin (in Poland)/Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences, the Polish Society for Conservation Genetics LUTREOLA and the European Mink Centre. Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genomes Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Olivier Fedrigo and Erich D. Jarvis.