Nitrogen deprivation-induced de novo transcriptomic profiling of the oleaginous green alga Botryococcus braunii 779

To assess the effect of nitrogen deprivation (ND), a moderately growing A-race Botryococcus braunii subisolate 779 was subjected to nitrogen deprivation for 3 days. De novo transcriptome was assembled and annotated by using Trinity software and Basic Local Alignment Search Tools (BLAST), respectively. Comparative analysis indicates that transcriptomes of A-races differ from those of B-races. Furthermore, majority of the homologous ESTs in A-race but not B-race transcriptomes were unknown sequences. Upon ND, level of photosynthetic transcripts, but not photosynthetic efficiency was downregulated. Unlike hydrocarbon contents, ESTs involved in hydrocarbon biosynthesis were not upregulated. Taken together, our results imply that A- and B-races belong to different B. braunii subspecies. Upon ND, excess photosynthetic transcripts are recycled for nitrogen; and hydrocarbon accumulation is not via de novo biosynthesis. Here we describe in details the data contents and analytic methodologies associated with the data uploaded to Gene Expression Omnibus (accession number GSE71296).