Draft genome sequence of Microbulbifer elongatus strain HZ11, a brown seaweed-degrading bacterium with potential ability to produce bioethanol from alginate.

Microbulbifer elongatus strain HZ11, was a new strain of M. elongates DSM 6810(T), which has the ability to degrade brown seaweeds such as Laminaria japonica into single cell detritus particles. Here we report a high quality draft genome of M. elongatus strain HZ11, which comprises 4,223,108bp in 9 contigs with the G+C content of 56.70%. A total of 3293 protein-coding sequences were predicted, including nine alginate lyases (EC 4.2.2.3), five agarases (EC 3.2.1.81), 2-dehydro-3-deoxygluconate kinase (EC 2.7.1.45) and all enzymes involved in the Entner-Doudoroff pathway. Our results suggest that strain HZ11 has the potential ability to produce bioethanol from alginate with moderate genetic modification, which may significantly increase the yield of bioethanol from brown seaweed and the utilization rate of brown seaweeds.