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.