The Naked Mole Rat Genome Resource: facilitating analyses of cancer and longevity-related adaptations

Abstract

Motivation: The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is an exceptionally long-lived and cancer-resistant rodent native to East Africa. Although its genome was previously sequenced, here we report a new assembly sequenced by us with substantially higher N50 values for scaffolds and contigs. Results: We analyzed the annotation of this new improved assembly and identified candidate genomic adaptations which may have contributed to the evolution of the naked mole rat’s extraordinary traits, including in regions of p53, and the hyaluronan receptors CD44 and HMMR (RHAMM). Furthermore, we developed a freely available web portal, the Naked Mole Rat Genome Resource (http://www.naked-mole-rat.org), featuring the data and results of our analysis, to assist researchers interested in the genome and genes of the naked mole rat, and also to facilitate further studies on this fascinating species. Availability and implementation: The Naked Mole Rat Genome Resource is freely available online at http://www.naked-mole-rat.org. This resource is open source and the source code is available at https://github.com/maglab/naked-mole-rat-portal. Contact: jp@senescence.info