Draft genome sequence of Victoriomyces sp. strain MUT 5898 (Ascomycota, Cephalothecaceae).

Victoriomyces antarcticus FBL 165T (MUT 3686T, CCF 6158T) (Cephalothecaceae, Sordariomycetes), collected from soil of Victoria Land, Antarctica, was described by Davolos et al. (2019). The strain MUT 5898, collected from desert soil in Douz, Tunisia, was recently assigned to Victoriomyces by means of morphological traits and DNA sequence analysis. MUT 5898 is deposited at Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis (MUT) of the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin (Italy). Victoriomyces antarcticus FBL 165T and Victoriomyces sp. MUT 5898 synthesize intense red pigments with unique properties (Davolos et al., in prep.).Here, we report the draft genome sequence of MUT 5898 obtained with next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods for understanding the molecular basis of the production of red pigments. Our ongoing efforts include comparing the genome of MUT 5898 with other newly sequenced Cephalothecaceae genomes, highlighting both shared and unique features of biotechnological value.The NGS and bioinformatics project was supported by the INAIL-DIT, Research Area (PAR 2019-2021).