Meeting Abstract
North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) have the second largest latitudinal range of any otter species, from boreal Canada to southern Mexico. This broad range corresponds to broad dietary, physiological, and behavioral patterns. By contrast, it follows a restricted mating period, and a narrower birthing period. This species undergoes delayed implantation, in which the fertilized embryo sits dormant inside the uterus of the mother until approximately 40 days before the optimal birth season is anticipated, when it implants and begins to gestate. This pattern fits the constraints of living in the far north, with a very short warm season, when it would be critically important to give birth and raise nurslings only during optimal weather. It is particularly interesting that this pattern of delayed implantation is not found in other closely related otter species whose ranges are more extensive than that of the North American river otter, such as the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra). In this preliminary study, we obtained genomic libraries generated by paired-end IlluminaTM sequencing at approximately 30X coverage from the North American river otter, the Eurasian otter, the African clawless otter (Aonyx capensis), and the American mink (Neovison vison). The African clawless otter does not undergo delayed implantation, while the mink, a member of the same family, but separate subfamily does undergo a limited implantation delay. We generate reference-guided assemblies of these species to compare the genomic content and structure from 69M sequences from the North American river otter, 102M sequences from the African small clawed otter, 70M sequences from the Eurasian otter, and 165M sequences from the American mink. The domesticated form of the European polecat (Mustela putorius), or the ferret, is used as a reference genome.
