The near telomere-to-telomere genome assembly and annotation of the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus, Soricidae, Eulipotyphla)

The Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus), an insectivoran mammal of the family Soricidae, is potentially a good model species for studying ancestral mammalian traits and serves as an important model for biomedical research such as vomiting and diabetes. To establish a foundational genomic resource, we generated a high-quality, near telomere-to-telomere (near-T2T) genome assembly using a hybrid strategy integrating PacBio HiFi, Oxford Nanopore reads, and Hi-C technology. The final 2.77 Gb assembly is anchored onto 21 pseudo-chromosomes (19 autosomes and two sex chromosomes), exhibiting exceptional continuity with five chromosomes assembled into single, gapless contigs. Assembly and annotation completeness were supported by BUSCO scores of 95.7% (genome) and 93.5% (gene set; Laurasiatheria_odb10), and 22,719 protein-coding genes were annotated. We identified 412 expanded gene families in S. murinus, notably more than in other eulipotyphlans, enriched in immune resilience, metabolic optimization, and xenobiotic detoxification. These findings provide a genomic foundation for the species' unique physiological adaptations to high metabolic demands and diverse ecological niches. This high-quality resource offers a robust platform for advancing evolutionary genomics and biomedical research.