Which reference genome file is correct?

Question

[theodore.killian]

I am implementing a bulk RNAseq pipeline to convert fastq reads into a count matrix. I would like to download the latest human reference genome to align the NGS RNAseq reads using hisat2. I've found several ways to download what I think is the reference file (size: ~40MB), but it seems to be much smaller than I remember reference files being (>1GB). Is "Homo_sapiens.GRCh38.101.gtf.gz" the correct reference file or can someone sent me a link for the correct human reference genome?

ftp://ftp.ensembl.org/pub/release-101/gtf/homo_sapiens

https://www.gencodegenes.org/human/

Answer 1

[GenoMax]

That is just the reference annotation in GTF format. You will need that as well. You can download corresponding primary assembly sequence fasta file here.