PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Giselle C. Martín-Hernández
AU  - Bettina Müller
AU  - Mikołaj Chmielarz
AU  - Christian Brandt
AU  - Martin Hölzer
AU  - Adrian Viehweger
AU  - Volkmar Passoth
TI  - Chromosome-level genome assembly and transcriptome- based annotation of the oleaginous yeast <em>Rhodotorula toruloides</em> CBS 14
AID  - 10.1101/2021.04.09.439123
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.04.09.439123
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/10/2021.04.09.439123.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/10/2021.04.09.439123.full
AB  - Rhodotorula toruloides is an oleaginous yeast with high biotechnological potential. In order to understand the molecular physiology of lipid synthesis in R. toruloides and to advance metabolic engineering, a high-resolution genome is required. We constructed a genome draft of R. toruloides CBS 14, using a hybrid assembly approach, consisting of short and long reads generated by Illumina and Nanopore sequencing, respectively. The genome draft consists of 23 contigs and 3 scaffolds, with a N50 length of 1,529,952 bp, thus largely representing chromosomal organization. The total size is 20,534,857 bp with a GC content of 61.83%. Transcriptomic data from different growth conditions was used to aid species-specific gene annotation. In total we annotated 9,464 genes and identified 11,691 transcripts. Furthermore, we demonstrated the presence of a potential plasmid, an extrachromosomal circular structure of about 11 kb with a copy number about three times as high as the other chromosomes.Significance This obtained high-quality draft genome provides the suitable framework needed for genetic manipulations, and future studies of lipid metabolism and evolution of oleaginous yeasts. The identified extrachromosomal circular DNA may be useful for developing efficient episomal vectors for the manipulation of Rhodotorula yeasts.Data deposition This project has been deposited at ENA under the accession PRJEB-40807.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.