Abstract
Chloroplast genomes have been widely considered an informative and valuable resource for molecular marker development and phylogenetic reconstruction in plant species. This study evaluated the complete chloroplast genomes of the traditional Chinese medicine Gleditsia sinensis and G. japonica, an adulterant of the former. The complete chloroplast genomes of G. sinensis and G. japonica were found to be of sizes 163,175 bp and 162,391 bp, respectively. A total of 111 genes were identified in each chloroplast genome, including 77 coding sequences, 30 tRNA, and 4 rRNA genes. Comparative analysis demonstrated that the chloroplast genomes of these two species were highly conserved in genome size, GC contents, and gene organization. Additionally, nucleotide diversity analysis of the two chloroplast genomes revealed that the two short regions of ycf1b were highly diverse, and could be treated as mini-barcode candidate regions. The mini-barcode of primers ZJ818F-1038R was proven to precisely discriminate between these two species and reflect their biomass ratio accurately. Overall, the findings of our study will shed light on the genetic evolution and guide species identification of G. sinensis and G. japonica.
Highlights
Gleditsia is a genus comprising 13 species of the Caesalpinioideae subfamily and Fabaceae family[1]
The results revealed four types of repeated sequences in G. sinensis, but no complementary repeats were detected in G. japonica
A total of 93 and 100 Simple sequence repeats (SSR) were identified in the complete chloroplast genomes of G. sinensis and G. japonica, respectively
Summary
Gleditsia (honey locust) is a genus comprising 13 species of the Caesalpinioideae subfamily and Fabaceae family[1]. Our aim is to develop a mini-barcode that can be used for the quantitative identification of G. sinensis and its counterfeit G. japonica For seed plants, such barcodes are identified by screening the chloroplast genome, owing to its advantages stated above[20,30]. The specific aims of the present study were to: (1) obtain the complete chloroplast genomes of G. sinensis and G. japonica; (2) carry out a comparative analysis of the chloroplast genomes of these two species; (3) evaluate the monophyletic and systematic position of Gleditsia by reconstructing phylogenetic relationships of the 152 species of the Fabaceae family; (4) detect the suitable mini-barcode region for species identification of these two species; (5) validate the quantitative capacity of mini-barcode primers by meta-barcoding. Our results will provide valuable data for accurate species-level discrimination between G. sinensis and G. japonica and help preserving the quality of G. sinensis as an important Chinese medicine
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