Genomic assembly of Botyrococcus braunii race B (Metzger et al. 1988) Ayame strain

This dataset is a genomic assembly (v1.0) of DNA from a culture of Botryococcus braunii race B, Ayame strain. The strain was isolated in 1984 by Metzger et al Phytochemistry (1988), 27, 1383-1388. The site of isolation was Cote d'Ivoire, barrier lake of Ayame, 24th Feb 1984, pH5.7 water temp 30.8.  The strain was then cultured in a lab for 25 years until being selected for this genomic denovo assembly project. The strain makes biofuels consisting of methylated triterpenoids termed "botryococenes."

The project objectives and achievements were to selectively identify and assemble full length triterpenoid synthase genes, annotate them, determine the numer of paralogues in this set of genes, and to investigate their evolution, via a bioinformatic process. The annotations of the slected genes are housed elsewhere on NCBI as genbank accessions KU248134, KU248135, KU248136 and KU248137, while the rest of the assembly is documented here.

Genes in the assembly are from across the entire genome, and commensals that were present in the cultutre are also deliberately represented in the datset aswell. The lab leading the publication (Ball lab) is a bioremediation lab, and the commensals are useful remediation organisms. Further, genes upstream in the triterpenoid synthesis pathway othere than the terminal genes that were targeted, are in the datset and are of interest to the wider molecular microbiology community.