Complete plastome sequence of Dracaena cambodiana (Asparagaceae): a species considered "Vulnerable" in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Dracaena cambodiana (Asparagaceae) is a treelike plant ranging from 3 to 10 m tall. It grows in low-elevation forests (0-300 m) having dry and sandy soils. It is distributed in Southern Hainan Island in China and other Southeast Asian countries (e.g. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam). The dried resin can be used medicinally as a substitute for that of Dracaena cochinchinensis. It has been ranked as a Vulnerable (VU) species in China. Here we report and characterize the complete plastid genome sequence of D. cambodiana. The complete plastome is 156,697 bp in length. It contains the typical structure and gene content of angiosperm plastomes, including two Inverted Repeat (IR) regions of 26,526 bp, a Large Single-Copy (LSC) region of 84,988 bp and a Small Single-Copy (SSC) region of 18,657 bp. The plastome contains 113 genes, consisting of 76 unique protein-coding genes, 30 unique tRNA genes, four unique rRNA genes and three pseudogenes (i.e. matK, infA, ndhF). The overall A/T content in the plastome of D. cambodiana is 62.4%. We performed phylogenetic analyses using the entire plastome, including spacers, introns, etc., and we determined that D. cambodiana and Maianthemum bicolor were closely related. The complete plastome sequence of D. cambodiana will provide a useful resource for the conservation genetics of this species as well as for phylogenetic studies in Asparagales.

Keywords: Asparagaceae; Asparagales; Dracaena cambodiana; illumina sequencing; phylogenetic analysis; plastome.

Figure 1.

The best ML phylogeny recovered from 13 complete plastome sequences by RAxML. Accession numbers: D. cambodiana (GenBank accession number: MH293451, this study), Maianthemum bicolor NC_035970.1, Nolina atopocarpa NC_032708.1, Polygonatum stenophyllum NC_035995.1, Asparagus schoberioides NC_035969.1, Cordyline indivisa NC_035998.1, Manfreda virginica NC_032707.1, Yucca brevifolia NC_032711.1, Schoenolirion croceum NC_032710.1, Hosta minor NC_035999.1, Anthericum ramosum NC_035972.1, Aphyllanthes monspeliensis NC_035968.1, Agapanthus coddii NC_035971.1.