AUTHOR=Park Kyu Tae , Park SeonJoo 

TITLE=Phylogenomic Analyses of Hepatica Species and Comparative Analyses Within Tribe Anemoneae (Ranunculaceae)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.638580

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2021.638580

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Hepatica</italic> is a small genus of Ranunculaceae with medicinal and horticultural value. We characterized nine complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of <italic>Hepatica</italic>, which ranged from 159,549 to 161,081 bp in length and had a typical quadripartite structure with a large single-copy region (LSC; 80,270–81,249 bp), a small single-copy region (SSC; 17,029–17,838 bp), and two copies of inverted repeat (IR; 31,008–31,100 bp). The cp genomes of <italic>Hepatica</italic> possess 76 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 29 tRNAs, and four rRNA genes. Comparative analyses revealed a conserved ca. 5-kb IR expansion in <italic>Hepatica</italic> and other Anemoneae; moreover, multiple inversion events occurred in <italic>Hepatica</italic> and its relatives. Analyses of selection pressure (<italic>dN</italic>/<italic>dS</italic>) showed that most of the PCGs are highly conserved except for <italic>rpl20</italic> and <italic>rpl22</italic> in <italic>Hepatica falconeri</italic>, <italic>Hepatica americana</italic>, and <italic>Hepatica acutiloba.</italic> Two genes (<italic>rps16</italic> and <italic>infA</italic>) were identified as pseudogenes in <italic>Hepatica</italic>. In contrast, <italic>rpl32</italic> gene was completely lost. The phylogenetic analyses based on 76 PCGs resolved the phylogeny of <italic>Hepatica</italic> and its related genera. Non-monophyly of <italic>Anemone s.l.</italic> indicates that <italic>Hepatica</italic> should be reclassified as an independent genus. In addition, <italic>Hepatica nobilis</italic> var. <italic>japonica</italic> is not closely related to <italic>H. nobilis.</italic></p>