Complete chloroplast genome of two Arabis L. species from Korea and assessment of their phylogenetic relationship in plastome based phylogeny

Abstract

Arabis stelleri DC. and A. takesimana Nakai belong to the family Brassicaceae. Arabis stelleri is widely distributed in East Asia and A. takesimana is a Korean endemic plant. In this study, we report the complete chloroplast genomes of both species, measuring 153,577 bp for A. stelleri and 153,557 bp for A. takesimana. The plastome of A. stelleri comprises two inverted repeats (IRs) of 26,421 bp, a large single-copy (LSC) region measuring 82,705 bp, and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,030 bp. Whereas, A. takesimana has IR regions of 26,426 bp, LSC of 82,694 bp and SSC of 18,011 bp. Both the plastomes contain 131 total genes, 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes and 36.4% GC. The organization and gene content of both the plastomes were found to be similar to previously reported Arabis plastomes. In addition, we have tested the phylogenetic position of both the Arabis species and the relationship of genus Arabis with other Brassicaceae members in comprehensive family level plastome based phylogeny. Arabis stelleri and A. takesimana are phylogenetically placed within the Arabis clade and show close relationship to A. flagellosa, A. nipponica, A. paniculata and A. hirsuta.