Full-Length Transcriptome Analysis of the Ichthyotoxic Harmful Alga Heterosigma akashiwo (Raphidophyceae) Using Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequencing

Abstract

The raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo is a harmful algal species. The bloom of this organism has been associated with the massive mortality of fish in many coastal waters. To investigate the molecular mechanism of H. akashiwo blooms, having a reliable reference transcriptome of this species is essential. Therefore, in this study, a full-length transcriptome of H. akashiwo was obtained by single-molecule real-time sequencing. In total, 45.44 Gb subread bases were generated, and 16,668 unigenes were obtained after the sequencing data processing. A total of 8666 (52.00%) unigenes were successfully annotated using seven public databases. Among them, mostly phosphorus and nitrogen metabolism genes were detected. Moreover, there were 300 putative transcription factors, 4392 putative long non-coding RNAs, and 7851 simple sequence repeats predicted. This study provides a valuable reference transcriptome for understanding how H. akashiwo blooms at a molecular level.