Chromosome-level genome assembly and transcriptome- based annotation of the oleaginous yeast *Rhodotorula toruloides* CBS 14

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.