Abstract
Analysis of the relationships among wild species of section Moutan in the plant genus Paeonia has traditionally been problematic. Interspecies relationships cannot be effectively determined using phenotypic traits alone or through analysis of nuclear or chloroplast DNA fragments. Elucidation of complete chloroplast genome sequences will aid the identification and phylogeny of these species. In this study, the complete chloroplast genomes of three sect. Moutan plants were sequenced and analyzed. Comparative and phylogenetic analyses of the complete chloroplast genomes of all eight species of sect. Moutan were then conducted. The three complete chloroplast genomes gained in this study showed four-part annular structures, and the genome length, structure, GC content, codon usage, and gene distribution were highly similar. There was greater variation in the noncoding regions of the sequences than in the conserved protein-coding regions. Sequence variations in the small single copy (SSC) regions and large single copy (LSC) regions were considerably greater than those in the inverted repeat (IR) regions. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the species of sect. Moutan clustered in one branch and then subdivided into smaller branches. As for the three complete chloroplast genome sequences obtained in this study, Paeonia jishanensis clustered with another P. jishanensis sequence from the GenBank database, Paeonia qiui clustered with Paeonia rockii, and Paeonia delavayi var. lutea clustered with Paeonia ludlowii. It was also found that the complete chloroplast genomes, LSC regions, and SSC regions all showed great abilities in identification and phylogenetic analysis of the species of sect. Moutan, while IRs regions and highly variable regions were not suitable for the species of sect. Moutan.
Highlights
Section Moutan belongs to the genus Paeonia, which was previously classified in the family Ranunculaceae but is under the family Paeoniaceae
Moutan were submitted to National Center for Biological Information (NCBI) under the accession numbers MT210544 (P. qiui), MT210545 (P. jishanensis), and MT210546 (P. delavayi var. lutea)
Moutan was the same as that reported for most other angiosperms (Xiang et al, 2016; Zhou et al, 2017); the inverted repeat (IR) regions had the highest
Summary
Section Moutan belongs to the genus Paeonia, which was previously classified in the family Ranunculaceae but is under the family Paeoniaceae. Delavayanae, the latter consisting of the Chloroplast Genomes of Section Moutan. Moutan are endemic to China (Hao et al, 2008): the wild species of sect. Progress has been made in studies on the relationships of wild species of sect. The relationships between wild species of sect. Moutan species result that limited nuclear or chloroplast DNA fragments provide insufficient phylogenetic information to effectively solve interspecies relationships. The complete chloroplast genomes of three wild species of sect. Phylogenetic analysis was performed by constructing phylogenetic trees based on different datasets of the chloroplast genomes of 16 species of the genus Paeonia, including all eight sect. Data obtained in this study provided a basis for the identification and investigation of the phylogenetic relationships of species of sect.
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