<b>Supplementary information on characterization of red-pigmented yeasts and genes associated with astaxanthin synthesis</b>

<b>Figure S1</b> High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) chromatogram of extracted astaxanthin (EAX), non-spiked and spiked with 10 ppm of astaxanthin (AX) standard from <i>R. mucilaginosa</i> HL26-1 (a) and <i>R. paludigena</i> LL69-1 (b).<b>Figure S2</b> Phylogenetic trees of <i>R. mucilaginosa</i> HL26-1, <i>R. paludigena</i> LL69-1, and related yeasts based on neighbor-joining with the Kimura-2-parameter method analysis of D1/D2 26S rDNA sequences generated by MEGA11 software. Bootstrap values equal to or greater than 50%, determined from 1000 replicates, are shown next to the branches. The bar represents 0.02 changes per nucleotide position.<b>Figure S3</b> Pairwise average nucleotide identity (ANI) values of <i>R. mucilaginosa</i> HL26-1, <i>R. paludigena</i> LL69-1, and other <i>Rhodotorula</i> genomes. Genomes labeled with the superscript "T" are type strains.<b>Table S1.</b> Sample sources, location, isolate number, closest species, 26S rRNA gene similarity (%)<b> </b>and identity of strains.<b>Table S2.</b> Carbon assimilation of 3 <i>R. </i><i>mucilaginosa </i>strains and 9 <i>R. paludigena</i> strains