To gain genetic insights into the biosynthesis of botryococcene oils in Botryococcus braunii race B, a transcriptome dataset of the BOT-22 strain containing 27,427 non-redundant sequences assembled from 209,429 complementary DNA reads was obtained via high-throughput 454 sequencing. Relatively reliable prediction of the gene product was feasible for 725 non-redundant sequences based on homology to previously characterized database sequences. Regarding the botryococcene oil biosynthesis, genes putatively associated with the mevalonate-independent isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway were retrieved, while no genes were found for the mevalonate pathway, suggesting that botryococcenes are biosynthesized through the mevalonate-independent pathway in B. braunii. All transcriptome sequences have been deposited in the GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ database. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.