Next-Generation Sequencing of Haematococcus lacustris Reveals an Extremely Large 1.35-Megabase Chloroplast Genome

Nicholas Bauman; Srividya Akella; Elizabeth Hann; Robert Morey; Ariel S Schwartz; Rob Brown; Toby H Richardson

doi:10.1128/genomeA.00181-18

Next-Generation Sequencing of Haematococcus lacustris Reveals an Extremely Large 1.35-Megabase Chloroplast Genome

Genome Announc. 2018 Mar 22;6(12):e00181-18. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.00181-18.

Authors

Nicholas Bauman¹, Srividya Akella², Elizabeth Hann², Robert Morey², Ariel S Schwartz², Rob Brown², Toby H Richardson²

Affiliations

¹ Synthetic Genomics, Inc., La Jolla, California, USA [email protected].
² Synthetic Genomics, Inc., La Jolla, California, USA.

Abstract

Haematococcus lacustris is an industrially relevant microalga that is used for the production of the carotenoid astaxanthin. Here, we report the use of PacBio long-read sequencing to assemble the chloroplast genome of H. lacustris strain UTEX:2505. At 1.35 Mb, this is the largest assembled chloroplast of any plant or alga known to date.