Aspergillus affinis strain:ATCC MYA-4773 Genome sequencing and assembly. Aspergillus affinis strain:ATCC MYA-4773

Aspergillus affinis ATCC MYA-4773T (section Circumdati) is a novel ochratoxin A (OTA)-producing species found in submerged riparian decomposing leaves (Davolos et al. 2002). However, very little is known about its role on the breakdown of plant debris and its ability to degrade carbohydrate polymers. Moreover, its full OTA biosynthetic pathway has not yet been explored. Recently, we investigated the gene encoding the extracellular alpha-amylase of A. affinis within the evolution of the Aspergillus lineages in relation to the possible use of this enzyme in starch processing. The novel amylase, despite being related to branches of the Aspergillus species of the sections Terrei and Flavi, formed a distinct phylogenetic branch, which may be of outstanding importance from a biotechnological point of view (Davolos & Pietrangeli, 2014). Moreover, we identified the polyketide synthase gene (pks) putatively required for the first step of OTA biosynthesis in A. affinis. This otapks was examined in relation to a limited number of orthologous genes available from Aspergillus species of the sections Circumdati and Nigri (Davolos & Pietrangeli, 2014).However, the genome sequence of A. affinis, which can give insights not only for its potential biotechnological application but also for understanding its safety use, is still lacking. In this study, we report the draft genome sequence of A. affinis ATCC MYA-4773T for setting up insights for safety biotechnological application. We sequenced the genome of A. affinis ATCC MYA-4773T with massively parallel sequencing Illumina technology. A paired-end library with an insert size of 300 bp was constructed. The 300-bp library was sequenced using an Illumina MiSeq using a 2 × 300 bp paired-end reads strategy. Our study showed the genes of OTA biosynthetic pathway from A. affinis in relation to other ochratoxigenic Aspergillus species.This study was supported by the INAIL, Research Project on microorganisms with biotechnological potential (PAR 2016-2018).