Open Access

ARTICLE

Structural characterization of four Rhododendron spp. chloroplast genomes and comparative analyses with other azaleas

XIAOJUN ZHOU^1,*, MENGXUE LIU¹, LINLIN SONG²

1 Life Science College, Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang, 471934, China
2 College of Life Science and Technology, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, 453003, China

* Corresponding Author: Xiaojun Zhou,

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Advances in Plant Cell Biology Research)

BIOCELL 2023, 47(3), 657-668. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2023.026781

Received 26 September 2022; Accepted 15 November 2022; Issue published 03 January 2023

Abstract

Azalea is a general designation of Rhododendron in the Ericaceae family. Rhododendron not only has high ornamental value but also has application value in ecological protection, medicine, and scientific research. In this study, we used Illumina and PacBio sequencing to assemble and annotate the entire chloroplast genomes (cp genomes) of four Rhododendron species. The chloroplast genomes of R. concinnum, R. henanense subsp. lingbaoense, R. micranthum, and R. simsii were assembled into 207,236, 208,015, 207,233, and 206,912 bp, respectively. All chloroplast genomes contain eight rRNA genes, with either 88 or 89 protein-coding genes. The four cp genomes were compared and analyzed by bioinformatics, and the phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast genomes of 26 species of Ericaceae, Actinidiaceae, and Primulaceae under Ericales was conducted. A comparison of the linear structure of cp genomes of four Rhododendron showed that there were substantial sequence similarities in coding regions, but high differences in non-coding regions. A phylogenetic analysis, based on chloroplast whole genome sequences, showed that all Rhododendron species are in the clade Ericaceae. This study provides valuable genetic information for the study of population genetics and evolutionary relationships in Rhododendron and other azalea species.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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