Plant Diversity ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (04): 281-291.DOI: 10.1016/j.pld.2021.04.004

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Comparative analysis of plastomes in Oxalidaceae: Phylogenetic relationships and potential molecular markers

Xiaoping Li, Yamei Zhao, Xiongde Tu, Chengru Li, Yating Zhu, Hui Zhong, Zhong-Jian Liu, Shasha Wu, Junwen Zhai   

  1. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration for Orchid Conservation and Utilization at College of Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
  • Received:2020-09-12 Revised:2021-04-14 Online:2021-08-25 Published:2021-09-07
  • Contact: Shasha Wu, Junwen Zhai
  • Supported by:
    We are grateful to Mingtao Jiang who helped collect plant material and Dingkun Liu of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University for his constructive suggestions. This work was sponsored by the Disciplinary Professional Construction Project of College of Art & College of Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (YSYL-bdpy-2, YSYL-bdpy-1).

Abstract: The wood sorrel family, Oxalidaceae, is mainly composed of annual or perennial herbs, a few shrubs, and trees distributed from temperate to tropical zones. Members of Oxalidaceae are of high medicinal, ornamental, and economic value. Despite the rich diversity and value of Oxalidaceae, few molecular markers or plastomes are available for phylogenetic analysis of the family. Here, we reported four new whole plastomes of Oxalidaceae and compared them with plastomes of three species in the family, as well as the plastome of Rourea microphylla in the closely related family Connaraceae. The eight plastomes ranged in length from 150,673 bp (Biophytum sensitivum) to 156,609 bp (R. microphylla). Genome annotations revealed a total of 129-131 genes, including 83-84 protein-coding genes, eight rRNA genes, 37 tRNA genes, and two to three pseudogenes. Comparative analyses showed that the plastomes of these species have minor variations at the gene level. The smaller plastomes of herbs B. sensitivum and three Oxalis species are associated with variations in IR region sizes, intergenic region variation, and gene or intron loss. We identified sequences with high variation that may serve as molecular markers in taxonomic studies of Oxalidaceae. The phylogenetic trees of selected superrosid representatives based on 76 protein-coding genes corroborated the Oxalidaceae position in Oxalidales and supported it as a sister to Connaraceae. Our research also supported the monophyly of the COM (Celastrales, Oxalidales, and Malpighiales) clade.

Key words: Oxalidaceae, Plastome, Oxalidales, Gene loss, COM clade, Phylogeny