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May 22, 2023
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Article

A new chromosome-assigned mongolian gerbil genome allows characterization of complete centromeres and a fully heterochromatic chromosome

Publicated to: Molecular Biology And Evolution. 40 (5): msad115- - 2023-05-02 40(5), DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msad115

Authors:

Brekke, TD; Papadopulos, AST; Julià, E; Fornas, O; Fu, BY; Yang, FT; de la Fuente, R; Page, J; Baril, T; Hayward, A; Mulley, JF
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Affiliations

Department of Experimental Embryology, Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzębiec, 05-552 Magdalenka, Poland. - Author
Bangor Univ, Sch Nat Sci, Gwynedd, Wales - Author
Barcelona Inst Sci & Technol BIST, Ctr Genom Regulat CRG, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Cambridge Epigenetix, Cambridge, England - Author
Cambridge Epigenetix, The Trinity Building, Chesterford Research Park, Cambridge, CB10 1XL, UK. - Author
Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain. - Author
Polish Acad Sci, Inst Genet & Anim Biotechnol, Dept Expt Embryol, Magdalenka, Poland - Author
Pompeu Fabra Univ, Flow Cytometry Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Barcelona, Spain. - Author
School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, United Kingdom. - Author
Shandong Univ Technol, Sch Life Sci & Med, Zibo, Peoples R China - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Fac Ciencias, Dept Biol, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Exeter, Ctr Ecol & Conservat, Cornwall, England - Author
University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, United Kingdom. - Author
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Abstract

Chromosome-scale genome assemblies based on ultra-long read sequencing technologies are able to illuminate previously intractable aspects of genome biology such as fine-scale centromere structure and large-scale variation in genome features such as heterochromatin, GC content, recombination rate, and gene content. We present here a new chromosome-scale genome of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) which includes the complete sequence of all centromeres. Gerbils are thus the one of the first vertebrates to have their centromeres completely sequenced. Gerbil centromeres are composed of four different repeats of length 6pb, 37 bp, 127 bp, or 1747bp which occur in simple alternating arrays and span 1-6Mb. Gerbil genomes have both an extensive set of GC-rich genes and chromosomes strikingly enriched for constitutive heterochromatin. We sought to determine if there was a link between these two phenomena and found that the two heterochromatic chromosomes of the Mongolian gerbil have distinct underpinnings: Chromosome 5 has a large block of intra-arm heterochromatin as the result of a massive expansion of centromeric repeats, while chromosome 13 is comprised of extremely large (>150 kb) repeated sequences. In addition to characterizing centromeres, our results demonstrate the importance of including karyotypic features such as chromosome number and the locations of centromeres in the interpretation of genome sequence data, and highlight novel patterns involved in the evolution of chromosomes.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.
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Keywords

merionescentromereschromosome evolutiongenomekaryotypeAnimalsCentromereCentromeresChromosome evolutionGenomeGerbillinaeHeterochromatinKaryotypeMerionesRepetitive sequences, nucleic acid

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 8/191, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Genetics & Heredity. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.06. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.4 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-05, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 7
  • Scopus: 6
  • Europe PMC: 9
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 8.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 8 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 7.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 13 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/713003
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: China; Poland; United Kingdom.

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Awards linked to the item

The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments as well as Aaron Comeault, Martin Swain, Yichen Dai, Adam Hargreaves, Peter Holland, and Roddy Pracana for helpful discussions pertaining to the project, and Rebecca Snell for help with animal care, and also, David Thybert for providing the Psammomys genome assembly. T.D.B. would like to thank Kris Crandell. This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust grant entitled "Decoding Dark DNA" (grant number RPG-2018-433) and by the National Environmental Research Council of the UK (grant number NE/R001081/1 to A.S.T.P) and by grant CGL2014-53106-P from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain to J.P.). Unpublished genome assemblies for M. unguiculatus are used with permission from the DNA Zoo Consortium (dnazoo.org).
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