A high-quality reference genome for the ornate shrew (Sorex ornatus)

The ornate shrew (Sorex ornatus) is a small predatory mammal with a broad distribution in northern, central, and southern California as well as in Baja California, Mexico. The ornate shrew is a highly productive consumer in wetland environments and is known to hybridize with the closely related vagrant shrew, Sorex vagrans. Here we present a high-quality de novo genome assembly for S. ornatus generated as a part of the California Conservation Genomics Project. The S. ornatus genome was generated using PacBio HiFi long reads and Omni-C chromatin interaction sequencing. The primary assembly is highly contiguous, with a contig N50 of 15.9 Mb, a scaffold N50 of 115.2 Mb, and a BUSCO completeness score of 95.10%. The ornate shrew genome will serve as a valuable resource for future North American Sorex conservation genomics as well as for research into shrew biology more generally.