Abstract
Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC., a medicinal plant with high economic value in the Asteraceae family, is widely distributed in China and Southeast Asia. However, studies on the population structure or phylogenetic relationships with other related species are rare owing to the lack of genome information. In this study, through high-throughput sequencing, we found that the chloroplast genome of B. balsamifera was 151,170 bp in length, with a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb) comprising 24,982 bp, a large single-copy (LSC) region comprising 82,740 bp, and a small single-copy (SSC) region comprising 18,466 bp. A total of 130 genes were identified in the chloroplast genome of B. balsamifera, including 85 protein-coding, 37 transfer RNA, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes; furthermore, sequence analysis identified 53 simple sequence repeats. Whole chloroplast genome comparison indicated that the inverted regions (IR) were more conserved than large single-copy and SSC regions. Phylogenetic analysis showed that B. balsamifera is closely related to Pluchea indica. Conclusively, the chloroplast genome of B. balsamifera was helpful for species identification and analysis of the genetic diversity and evolution in the genus Blumea and family Asteraceae.
Highlights
Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC. is a perennial herb or subshrub that belongs to the family Asteraceae and is mainly distributed in China, India, Thailand, and the Philippines (Chinese Academy of Sciences editorial commission of the flora, 1988)
Rps12 is a trans-splicing gene with the 5′-exon located in the large single-copy (LSC) region and 3′-end exon duplicated in the inverted regions (IR), which is common among plant cp genomes
The complete cp genome of B. balsamifera was reported for the first time
Summary
Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC. is a perennial herb or subshrub that belongs to the family Asteraceae and is mainly distributed in China, India, Thailand, and the Philippines (Chinese Academy of Sciences editorial commission of the flora, 1988). Asteraceae is the largest family of flowering plants with numerous species, including 1,479 genera and 21,105 species. It is widely distributed in the world except the Antarctic region (Dempewolf et al, 2008). Blumea is a highly complex genus in the Asteraceae family It was first placed in the tribe Astereae and later moved to the tribe Inuleae owing to the characteristics of anthers. The genome size, content, and structure are more conserved in the chloroplast genome than in the nuclear genome (Wicke et al, 2011) It becomes an ideal model for studying genome evolution, phylogenetic analysis, and species identification in complex angiosperm families. The chloroplast genome of Blumea has not yet been reported, which is inconducive to further study on the evolutionary history and status of Blumea
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