Abstract
Argania spinosa (Sapotaceae), an important endemic Moroccan oil tree, is a primary source of argan oil, which has numerous dietary and medicinal proprieties. The plant species occupies the mid-western part of Morocco and provides great environmental and socioeconomic benefits. The complete chloroplast (cp) genome of A. spinosa was sequenced, assembled, and analyzed in comparison with those of two Sapotaceae members. The A. spinosa cp genome is 158,848 bp long, with an average GC content of 36.8%. The cp genome exhibits a typical quadripartite and circular structure consisting of a pair of inverted regions (IR) of 25,945 bp in length separating small single-copy (SSC) and large single-copy (LSC) regions of 18,591 and 88,367 bp, respectively. The annotation of A. spinosa cp genome predicted 130 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes (CDS), 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. A total of 44 long repeats and 88 simple sequence repeats (SSR) divided into mononucleotides (76), dinucleotides (7), trinucleotides (3), tetranucleotides (1), and hexanucleotides (1) were identified in the A. spinosa cp genome. Phylogenetic analyses using the maximum likelihood (ML) method were performed based on 69 protein-coding genes from 11 species of Ericales. The results confirmed the close position of A. spinosa to the Sideroxylon genus, supporting the revisiting of its taxonomic status. The complete chloroplast genome sequence will be valuable for further studies on the conservation and breeding of this medicinally and culinary important species and also contribute to clarifying the phylogenetic position of the species within Sapotaceae.
Highlights
IntroductionSkeels) is an endemic plant species of the middle west of Morocco and the unique member of the tropical Sapotaceae family in this Mediterranean country [1]
We report the complete cp genome sequence of A. spinosa, assembled from Illumina short reads for the first time and compare the genomes of three Sapotaceae species to understand the variations among their cp genomes
After a quality processing step, 936,053,040 reads were mapped against the cp reference genome to collect the A. spinosa cp-like reads
Summary
Skeels) is an endemic plant species of the middle west of Morocco and the unique member of the tropical Sapotaceae family in this Mediterranean country [1]. In 1999, UNESCO classified the argan tree as a world heritage. Extracted from seeds, argan oil is the worldwide precious product of the argan tree, used as edible or cosmetic oil [2]. Plants 2020, 9, 1354 species is the backbone of a traditional arganian system that has hitherto served the needs of a dense population in an arid zone. The management and conservation of the remaining genetic resources of this species are urgent priorities
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