Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Phytochemicals and Sustainable Utilization, Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guilin 541006, China.
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology in Karst Terrain, Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guilin 541006, China.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Sep 29;14(10):1894. doi: 10.3390/genes14101894.
Limestone karsts are renowned for extremely high species richness and endemism. (Asparagaceae) is among the highly diversified genera distributed in karst areas, making it an ideal group for studying the evolutionary mechanisms of karst plants. The taxonomy and identification of species are mainly based on their specialized and diverse floral structures. plants have inconspicuous flowers, and the similarity in vegetative morphology often leads to difficulties in species discrimination. Chloroplast genomes possess variable genetic information and offer the potential for interspecies identification. However, as yet there is little information about the interspecific diversity and evolution of the plastid genomes of . In this study, we reported chloroplast (cp) genomes of seven species (, , , , , , and ). These seven highly-conserved plastid genomes all have a typical quartile structure and include a total of 113 unique genes, comprising 79 protein-coding genes, 4 rRNA genes and 30 tRNA genes. Additionally, we conducted a comprehensive comparative analysis of cp genomes. We identified eight divergent hotspot regions (-GCA-, -UUC-, , , , , and ) that serve as potential molecular markers. Our newly generated plastomes enrich the resources of plastid genomes of karst plants, and an investigation into the plastome diversity offers novel perspectives on the taxonomy, phylogeny and evolution of species.
石灰岩喀斯特地区以物种丰富度和特有性极高而闻名。（天门冬科）是分布在喀斯特地区的高度多样化属之一，是研究喀斯特植物进化机制的理想群体。物种的分类和鉴定主要基于其特化和多样化的花部结构。天门冬属植物的花不显眼，而营养形态的相似性常常导致物种鉴别困难。叶绿体基因组具有可变的遗传信息，为种间鉴定提供了潜力。然而，目前关于天门冬属叶绿体基因组的种间多样性和进化的信息还很少。在这项研究中，我们报道了七个天门冬属物种（,,,,, 和 ）的叶绿体（cp）基因组。这七个高度保守的叶绿体基因组都具有典型的四联体结构，共包含 113 个独特基因，包括 79 个蛋白编码基因、4 个 rRNA 基因和 30 个 tRNA 基因。此外，我们对 cp 基因组进行了全面的比较分析。我们鉴定出了 8 个分化热点区域（-GCA-、-UUC-、、、、和 ），它们可作为潜在的分子标记。我们新生成的叶绿体基因组丰富了喀斯特植物叶绿体基因组的资源，对叶绿体多样性的研究为天门冬属物种的分类、系统发育和进化提供了新的视角。
