A First Glimpse at the Genome of the Baikalian Amphipod Eulimnogammarus verrucosusI

Eulimnogammarus verrucosus is an amphipod endemic to the unique ecosystem of Lake Baikal and serves as an emerging model in particular in ecotoxicological studies. We report here on a survey sequencing of its genome as a first step to establish sequence resources for this species. From a single lane of paired-end sequencing data we estimate the genome size as nearly 10 Gb and to obtain an overview of the repeat content. At least two thirds of the genome are non-unique DNA, and a third of the genomic DNA is composed of just five families of repetitive elements, including low-complexity sequences. We furthermore report the assembly of the mitochondrial genome using a new, guided “crystallization” procedure, observing e.g. that it shares the gene order with the amphipod Gammarus duebeni. The initial results reported here set the stage for a more complete sequencing and analysis of this large animal genome.