cyanobacterial genomes in NIES

Large number of cyanobacterial genomes were sequenced for DNA barcoding of NIES strains. Microbial culture collection in National Institute for Environmental Studies (MCC-NIES) is the largest algal culture collection in Japan and maintains more than 700 cyanobacterial strains. These strains include many unique strains, which form water bloom, generate cyanotoxins, and are useful for food stocks and producing some materials (e.g. pigments). MCC-NIES can provide cyanobacterial strains for studies via our web page (http://mcc.nies.go.jp/index_en.html). For genome assembly, we sequenced the genomes using illumina MiSeq and assembled reads into draft genomes. We do not have plans to generate complete genomes, i.e. circular genomes.