The Mouse Genomes Project: a repository of inbred laboratory mouse strain genomes

The Mouse Genomes Project was initiated in 2009 with the goal of using next-generation sequencing technologies to catalogue molecular variation in the common laboratory mouse strains, and a selected set of wild-derived inbred strains. The initial sequencing and survey of sequence variation in 17 inbred strains was completed in 2011 and included comprehensive catalogue of single nucleotide polymorphisms, short insertion/deletions, larger structural variants including their fine scale architecture and landscape of transposable element variation, and genomic sites subject to post-transcriptional alteration of RNA. From this beginning, the resource has expanded significantly to include 36 fully sequenced inbred laboratory mouse strains, a refined and updated data processing pipeline, and new variation querying and data visualisation tools which are available on the project’s website (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/resources/mouse/genomes/). The focus of the project is now the completion of de novo assembled chromosome sequences and strain-specific gene structures for the core strains. We discuss how the assembled chromosomes will power comparative analysis, data access tools and future directions of mouse genetics.