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Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome
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Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Systematics, Taxonomy, Nomenclature and Classification".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 34518

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jung Sung Kim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Forest Science, Chungbuk National University, Chungdaero 1, Seowon-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk 28644, Korea
Interests: plant evolution; phylogenomics; phylogenetics; plant speciation; hybridization; chromosome behavior of plants; polyploidization; endemic plants; genetic diversity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chloroplast, generally known as the unique organelle of plants, has its own genome and has given us a lot of information that has helped us to deepen our understanding of plant evolution. In particular, the accumulation of chloroplast genome data in green plants, owing to the advance of NGS techniques, has opened up a new era of “phylogenomics”. Most of all, it is obvious that backbone tree building of the plant taxa based on genomic data provides the power tool to resolve an uncleared phylogenetic relationship and infer their evolutionary histories, and now it is widely applied in the population and species as well as family level, even though the problem of the taxonomic gap still remains.

Therefore, in this Special Issue, original research papers or reviews that focus on phylogenomics, comparative phylogeny, systematics, molecular marker development for specific lineage, chloroplast genome evolution, technical issues of NGS data in plant science, speciation of wild plants, and biogeographical studies using the chloroplast genome or genes are most welcome.

Dr. Jung Sung Kim
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • phylogenomics
  • chloroplast genome
  • plant
  • phylogeny
  • phylogenetic tree
  • evolution
  • NGS
  • biogeography
  • speciation

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 11738 KiB  
Article
The Chloroplast Phylogenomics and Systematics of Zoysia (Poaceae)
by Se-Hwan Cheon, Min-Ah Woo, Sangjin Jo, Young-Kee Kim and Ki-Joong Kim
Plants 2021, 10(8), 1517; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10081517 - 24 Jul 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2686
Abstract
The genus Zoysia Willd. (Chloridoideae) is widely distributed from the temperate regions of Northeast Asia—including China, Japan, and Korea—to the tropical regions of Southeast Asia. Among these, four species—Zoysia japonica Steud., Zoysia sinica Hance, Zoysia tenuifolia Thiele, and Zoysia macrostachya Franch. & [...] Read more.
The genus Zoysia Willd. (Chloridoideae) is widely distributed from the temperate regions of Northeast Asia—including China, Japan, and Korea—to the tropical regions of Southeast Asia. Among these, four species—Zoysia japonica Steud., Zoysia sinica Hance, Zoysia tenuifolia Thiele, and Zoysia macrostachya Franch. & Sav.—are naturally distributed in the Korean Peninsula. In this study, we report the complete plastome sequences of these Korean Zoysia species (NCBI acc. nos. MF953592, MF967579~MF967581). The length of Zoysia plastomes ranges from 135,854 to 135,904 bp, and the plastomes have a typical quadripartite structure, which consists of a pair of inverted repeat regions (20,962~20,966 bp) separated by a large (81,348~81,392 bp) and a small (12,582~12,586 bp) single-copy region. In terms of gene order and structure, Zoysia plastomes are similar to the typical plastomes of Poaceae. The plastomes encode 110 genes, of which 76 are protein-coding genes, 30 are tRNA genes, and four are rRNA genes. Fourteen genes contain single introns and one gene has two introns. Three evolutionary hotspot spacer regions—atpB~rbcL, rps16~rps3, and rpl32~trnL-UAG—were recognized among six analyzed Zoysia species. The high divergences in the atpB~rbcL spacer and rpl16~rpl3 region are primarily due to the differences in base substitutions and indels. In contrast, the high divergence between rpl32~trnL-UAG spacers is due to a small inversion with a pair of 22 bp stem and an 11 bp loop. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in 59 different locations in Z. japonica, 63 in Z. sinica, 62 in Z. macrostachya, and 63 in Z. tenuifolia plastomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Zoysia (Zoysiinae) forms a monophyletic group, which is sister to Sporobolus (Sporobolinae), with 100% bootstrap support. Within the Zoysia clade, the relationship of (Z. sinica, Z japonica), (Z. tenuifolia, Z. matrella), (Z. macrostachya, Z. macrantha) was suggested. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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14 pages, 1484 KiB  
Article
Towards the Well-Tempered Chloroplast DNA Sequences
by Ante Turudić, Zlatko Liber, Martina Grdiša, Jernej Jakše, Filip Varga and Zlatko Šatović
Plants 2021, 10(7), 1360; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10071360 - 2 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4616
Abstract
With the development of next-generation sequencing technology and bioinformatics tools, the process of assembling DNA sequences has become cheaper and easier, especially in the case of much shorter organelle genomes. The number of available DNA sequences of complete chloroplast genomes in public genetic [...] Read more.
With the development of next-generation sequencing technology and bioinformatics tools, the process of assembling DNA sequences has become cheaper and easier, especially in the case of much shorter organelle genomes. The number of available DNA sequences of complete chloroplast genomes in public genetic databases is constantly increasing and the data are widely used in plant phylogenetic and biotechnological research. In this work, we investigated possible inconsistencies in the stored form of publicly available chloroplast genome sequence data. The impact of these inconsistencies on the results of the phylogenetic analysis was investigated and the bioinformatic solution to identify and correct inconsistencies was implemented. The whole procedure was demonstrated using five plant families (Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Campanulaceae, Lamiaceae and Rosaceae) as examples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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19 pages, 1412 KiB  
Article
New Insight into Taxonomy of European Mountain Pines, Pinus mugo Complex, Based on Complete Chloroplast Genomes Sequencing
by Joanna Sokołowska, Hanna Fuchs and Konrad Celiński
Plants 2021, 10(7), 1331; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10071331 - 29 Jun 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2986
Abstract
The Pinus mugo complex is a large group of closely related mountain pines, which are an important component of the ecosystems of the most important mountain ranges, such as the Alps, Carpathians and Pyrenees. The phylogenetic relationships between taxa in this complex have [...] Read more.
The Pinus mugo complex is a large group of closely related mountain pines, which are an important component of the ecosystems of the most important mountain ranges, such as the Alps, Carpathians and Pyrenees. The phylogenetic relationships between taxa in this complex have been under discussion for many years. Despite the use of many different approaches, they still need to be clarified and supplemented with new data, especially those obtained with high-throughput methods. Therefore, in this study, the complete sequences of the chloroplast genomes of the three most recognized members of the Pinus mugo complex, i.e., Pinus mugo, Pinus rotundata and Pinus uncinata, were sequenced and analyzed to gain new insight into their phylogenetic relationships. Comparative analysis of their complete chloroplast genome sequences revealed several mutational hotspots potentially useful for the genetic identification of taxa from the Pinus mugo complex. Phylogenetic inference based on sixteen complete chloroplast genomes of different coniferous representatives showed that pines from the Pinus mugo complex form one distinct monophyletic group. The results obtained in this study provide new and valuable omics data for further research within the European mountain pine complex. They also indicate which regions may be useful in the search for diagnostic DNA markers for the members of Pinus mugo complex and set the baseline in the conservation of genetic resources of its endangered taxa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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19 pages, 3397 KiB  
Article
Complete Chloroplast Genome of Abutilon fruticosum: Genome Structure, Comparative and Phylogenetic Analysis
by Dhafer A. Alzahrani
Plants 2021, 10(2), 270; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020270 - 30 Jan 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3216
Abstract
Abutilon fruticosum is one of the endemic plants with high medicinal and economic value in Saudi Arabia and belongs to the family Malvaceae. However, the plastome sequence and phylogenetic position have not been reported until this study. In this research, the complete chloroplast [...] Read more.
Abutilon fruticosum is one of the endemic plants with high medicinal and economic value in Saudi Arabia and belongs to the family Malvaceae. However, the plastome sequence and phylogenetic position have not been reported until this study. In this research, the complete chloroplast genome of A. fruticosum was sequenced and assembled, and comparative and phylogenetic analyses within the Malvaceae family were conducted. The chloroplast genome (cp genome) has a circular and quadripartite structure with a total length of 160,357 bp and contains 114 unique genes (80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes and 4 rRNA genes). The repeat analyses indicate that all the types of repeats (palindromic, complement, forward and reverse) were present in the genome, with palindromic occurring more frequently. A total number of 212 microsatellites were identified in the plastome, of which the majority are mononucleotides. Comparative analyses with other species of Malvaceae indicate a high level of resemblance in gene content and structural organization and a significant level of variation in the position of genes in single copy and inverted repeat borders. The analyses also reveal variable hotspots in the genomes that can serve as barcodes and tools for inferring phylogenetic relationships in the family: the regions include trnH-psbA, trnK-rps16, psbI-trnS, atpH-atpI, trnT-trnL, matK, ycf1 and ndhH. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that A. fruticosum is closely related to Althaea officinalis, which disagrees with the previous systematic position of the species. This study provides insights into the systematic position of A. fruticosum and valuable resources for further phylogenetic and evolutionary studies of the species and the Malvaceae family to resolve ambiguous issues within the taxa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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10 pages, 7759 KiB  
Article
A Small Number of Gametophytes with Gametangia and Stunted Sporophytes of Antrophyum obovatum Baker (Pteridaceae): The Suppression of Functional Sporophyte Production by Prezygotic and Postzygotic Sterility
by Sang Hee Park, Jung Sung Kim and Hyoung Tae Kim
Plants 2021, 10(1), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10010170 - 18 Jan 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2858
Abstract
Ferns have conspicuous sporophytes as the dominant phase in their life cycle; however, the gametophytes are completely separated from the sporophytes and supply their own nutrition, unlike in bryophytes and seed plants. Among the gametophytes, some maintain their populations in the gametophyte phase [...] Read more.
Ferns have conspicuous sporophytes as the dominant phase in their life cycle; however, the gametophytes are completely separated from the sporophytes and supply their own nutrition, unlike in bryophytes and seed plants. Among the gametophytes, some maintain their populations in the gametophyte phase without progressing to sporophyte production and are known as independent gametophytes. Independent gametophytes of Antrophyum obovatum Baker were recently reported in one population on Jeju Island, Korea. In the present study, we surveyed more places to find new independent gametophyte populations of A. obovatum using the rbcL gene sequence-based DNA barcoding technique. We identified two new sites inhabited by independent gametophytes. Archegonia and juvenile sporophytes were independently observed in each location under slightly different environmental conditions. Consequently, in the case of this species, functional sporophyte production is likely suppressed by prezygotic and postzygotic sterility, depending on microenvironmental factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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18 pages, 52587 KiB  
Article
Comparative and Phylogenetic Analysis of Complete Chloroplast Genomes in Eragrostideae (Chloridoideae, Poaceae)
by Kuan Liu, Rong Wang, Xiu-Xiu Guo, Xue-Jie Zhang, Xiao-Jian Qu and Shou-Jin Fan
Plants 2021, 10(1), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10010109 - 6 Jan 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3274
Abstract
Eragrostideae Stapf, the second-largest tribe in Chloridoideae (Poaceae), is a taxonomically complex tribe. In this study, chloroplast genomes of 13 Eragrostideae species were newly sequenced and used to resolve the phylogenetic relationships within Eragrostideae. Including seven reported chloroplast genomes from Eragrostideae, the genome [...] Read more.
Eragrostideae Stapf, the second-largest tribe in Chloridoideae (Poaceae), is a taxonomically complex tribe. In this study, chloroplast genomes of 13 Eragrostideae species were newly sequenced and used to resolve the phylogenetic relationships within Eragrostideae. Including seven reported chloroplast genomes from Eragrostideae, the genome structure, number and type of genes, codon usage, and repeat sequences of 20 Eragrostideae species were analyzed. The length of these chloroplast genomes varied from 130,773 bp to 135,322 bp. These chloroplast genomes showed a typical quadripartite structure, including a large single-copy region (77,993–80,643 bp), a small single-copy region (12,410–12,668 bp), and a pair of inverted repeats region (19,394–21,074 bp). There were, in total, 129–133 genes annotated in the genome, including 83–87 protein-coding genes, eight rRNA genes, and 38 tRNA genes. Forward and palindromic repeats were the most common repeat types. In total, 10 hypervariable regions (rpl22, rpoA, ndhF, matK, trnG–UCC-trnT–GGU, ndhF–rpl32, ycf4–cemA, rpl32–trnL–UAG, trnG–GCC–trnfM–CAU, and ccsA–ndhD) were found, which can be used as candidate molecular markers for Eragrostideae. Phylogenomic studies concluded that Enneapogon diverged first, and Eragrostis including Harpachne is the sister to Uniola. Furthermore, Harpachne harpachnoides is considered as a species of Eragrostis based on morphological and molecular evidence. In addition, the interspecies relationships within Eragrostis are resolved based on complete chloroplast genomes. This study provides useful chloroplast genomic information for further phylogenetic analysis of Eragrostideae. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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20 pages, 6271 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis of Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequences of Wild and Cultivated Bougainvillea (Nyctaginaceae)
by Mary Ann C. Bautista, Yan Zheng, Zhangli Hu, Yunfei Deng and Tao Chen
Plants 2020, 9(12), 1671; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9121671 - 28 Nov 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3351
Abstract
Bougainvillea (Nyctaginaceae) is a popular ornamental plant group primarily grown for its striking colorful bracts. However, despite its established horticultural value, limited genomic resources and molecular studies have been reported for this genus. Thus, to address this existing gap, complete chloroplast genomes of [...] Read more.
Bougainvillea (Nyctaginaceae) is a popular ornamental plant group primarily grown for its striking colorful bracts. However, despite its established horticultural value, limited genomic resources and molecular studies have been reported for this genus. Thus, to address this existing gap, complete chloroplast genomes of four species (Bougainvillea glabra, Bougainvillea peruviana, Bougainvillea pachyphylla, Bougainvillea praecox) and one Bougainvillea cultivar were sequenced and characterized. The Bougainvillea cp genomes range from 153,966 bp to 154,541 bp in length, comprising a large single-copy region (85,159 bp–85,708 bp) and a small single-copy region (18,014 bp–18,078 bp) separated by a pair of inverted repeats (25,377–25,427 bp). All sequenced plastomes have 131 annotated genes, including 86 protein-coding, eight rRNA, and 37 tRNA genes. These five newly sequenced Bougainvillea cp genomes were compared to the Bougainvillea spectabilis cp genome deposited in GeBank. The results showed that all cp genomes have highly similar structures, contents, and organization. They all exhibit quadripartite structures and all have the same numbers of genes and introns. Codon usage, RNA editing sites, and repeat analyses also revealed highly similar results for the six cp genomes. The amino acid leucine has the highest proportion and almost all favored synonymous codons have either an A or U ending. Likewise, out of the 42 predicted RNA sites, most conversions were from serine (S) to leucine (L). The majority of the simple sequence repeats detected were A/T mononucleotides, making the cp genomes A/T-rich. The contractions and expansions of the IR boundaries were very minimal as well, hence contributing very little to the differences in genome size. In addition, sequence variation analyses showed that Bougainvillea cp genomes share nearly identical genomic profiles though several potential barcodes, such as ycf1, ndhF, and rpoA were identified. Higher variation was observed in both B. peruviana and B. pachyphylla cp sequences based on SNPs and indels analysis. Phylogenetic reconstructions further showed that these two species appear to be the basal taxa of Bougainvillea. The rarely cultivated and wild species of Bougainvillea (B. pachyphylla, B. peruviana, B. praecox) diverged earlier than the commonly cultivated species and cultivar (B. spectabilis, B. glabra, B. cv.). Overall, the results of this study provide additional genetic resources that can aid in further phylogenetic and evolutionary studies in Bougainvillea. Moreover, genetic information from this study is potentially useful in identifying Bougainvillea species and cultivars, which is essential for both taxonomic and plant breeding studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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15 pages, 2480 KiB  
Article
Insights into Comparative Genomics, Codon Usage Bias, and Phylogenetic Relationship of Species from Biebersteiniaceae and Nitrariaceae Based on Complete Chloroplast Genomes
by Xiaofeng Chi, Faqi Zhang, Qi Dong and Shilong Chen
Plants 2020, 9(11), 1605; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9111605 - 18 Nov 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3729
Abstract
Biebersteiniaceae and Nitrariaceae, two small families, were classified in Sapindales recently. Taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships within Sapindales are still poorly resolved and controversial. In current study, we compared the chloroplast genomes of five species (Biebersteinia heterostemon, Peganum harmala, Nitraria roborowskii, Nitraria sibirica, [...] Read more.
Biebersteiniaceae and Nitrariaceae, two small families, were classified in Sapindales recently. Taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships within Sapindales are still poorly resolved and controversial. In current study, we compared the chloroplast genomes of five species (Biebersteinia heterostemon, Peganum harmala, Nitraria roborowskii, Nitraria sibirica, and Nitraria tangutorum) from Biebersteiniaceae and Nitrariaceae. High similarity was detected in the gene order, content and orientation of the five chloroplast genomes; 13 highly variable regions were identified among the five species. An accelerated substitution rate was found in the protein-coding genes, especially clpP. The effective number of codons (ENC), parity rule 2 (PR2), and neutrality plots together revealed that the codon usage bias is affected by mutation and selection. The phylogenetic analysis strongly supported (Nitrariaceae (Biebersteiniaceae + The Rest)) relationships in Sapindales. Our findings can provide useful information for analyzing phylogeny and molecular evolution within Biebersteiniaceae and Nitrariaceae. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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13 pages, 3567 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analyses of the Chloroplast Genomes of Patchouli Plants and Their Relatives in Pogostemon (Lamiaceae)
by Cai-Yun Zhang, Tong-Jian Liu, Xiao-Lu Mo, Hui-Run Huang, Gang Yao, Jian-Rong Li, Xue-Jun Ge and Hai-Fei Yan
Plants 2020, 9(11), 1497; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9111497 - 5 Nov 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2805
Abstract
Pogostemon Desf., the largest genus of the tribe Pogostemoneae (Lamiaceae), consists of ca. 80 species distributed mainly from South and Southeast Asia to China. The genus contains many patchouli plants, which are of great economic importance but taxonomically difficult. Therefore, it is necessary [...] Read more.
Pogostemon Desf., the largest genus of the tribe Pogostemoneae (Lamiaceae), consists of ca. 80 species distributed mainly from South and Southeast Asia to China. The genus contains many patchouli plants, which are of great economic importance but taxonomically difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to characterize more chloroplast (cp) genomes for infrageneric phylogeny analyses and species identification of Pogostemon, especially for patchouli plants. In this study, we newly generated four cp genomes for three patchouli plants (i.e., Pogostemon plectranthoides Desf., P. septentrionalis C. Y. Wu et Y. C. Huang, and two cultivars of P. cablin (Blanoco) Benth.). Comparison of all samples (including online available cp genomes of P. yatabeanus (Makino) Press and P. stellatus (Lour.) Kuntze) suggested that Pogostemon cp genomes are highly conserved in terms of genome size and gene content, with a typical quadripartite circle structure. Interspecific divergence of cp genomes has been maintained at a relatively low level, though seven divergence hotspot regions were identified by stepwise window analysis. The nucleotide diversity (Pi) value was correlated significantly with gap proportion (indels), but significantly negative with GC content. Our phylogenetic analyses based on 80 protein-coding genes yielded high-resolution backbone topologies for the Lamiaceae and Pogostemon. For the overall mean substitution rates, the synonymous (dS) and nonsynonymous (dN) substitution rate values of protein-coding genes varied approximately threefold, while the dN values among different functional gene groups showed a wider variation range. Overall, the cp genomes of Pogostemon will be useful for phylogenetic reconstruction, species delimitation and identification in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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14 pages, 15792 KiB  
Article
Comparative Genomics and Phylogenetic Analyses of Christia vespertilionis and Urariopsis brevissima in the Tribe Desmodieae (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae) Based on Complete Chloroplast Genomes
by Xue-Li Zhao and Zhang-Ming Zhu
Plants 2020, 9(9), 1116; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9091116 - 28 Aug 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3208
Abstract
Taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships of Christia, Urariopsis, Uraria and related genera within the tribe Desmodieae (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae) have long been controversial. Here, we report the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of Christia vespertilionis and Urariopsis brevissima and perform comparative and phylogenetic analyses [...] Read more.
Taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships of Christia, Urariopsis, Uraria and related genera within the tribe Desmodieae (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae) have long been controversial. Here, we report the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of Christia vespertilionis and Urariopsis brevissima and perform comparative and phylogenetic analyses with Uraria lagopodioides and other relatives in the Desmodieae. The cp genomes of C. vespertilionis and U. brevissima are 149,656 and 149,930 bp long, with 128 unique genes (83 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes), respectively. Comparative analyses revealed 95-129 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and eleven highly variable regions (trnK-rbcL, rbcL-atpB, ndhJ-trnF, trnL-trnT, psbD-rpoB, accD-cemA, petA-psbL, psbE-petL, rps11-rps19, ndhF-ccsA, and rps15-ycf1) among six Desmodieae species. Phylogenetic analyses clearly resolved two subtribes (Desmodiinae and Lespedezinae) of Desmodieae as monophyletic, and the newly reported C. vespertilionis and U. brevissima clustered in subtribe Desmodiinae. A sister relationship of C. vespertilionis to U. lagopodioides was supported. Evidence was presented to support the treatment of Urariopsis as a distinct genus rather than in synonymy with Uraria. The results provide valuable information for further studies on species delimitation, phylogenetics, population genetics, and the evolutionary process of speciation in the Desmodieae. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Evolution, Systematics, and Chloroplast Genome)
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