Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Veronica arvensis and its phylogenomic inference in plantaginaceae

Abstract

Veronica arvensis, which is an annual flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae, has commonly used as a Chinese herbal medicine to treat malaria in China. Here, the complete plastome of V. arvensis was successfully assembled based on genome skimming sequencing. The plastome of V. arvensis was 149,386 bp in length, comprising a pair of inverted repeats (IR; 24,946 bp) separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region (82,004 bp) and a small single-copy (SSC) region (17,490 bp). The plastid genome encoded 113 unique genes, consisting of 79 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes, with 19 duplicated genes in the IR regions. Six plastid hotspot regions (trnH-psbA, trnK-rps16, atpI-rps2, ndhF-rpl32, ccsA-ndhD and rps15-ycf1) were identified within Veronica. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the representative species from Veronica was monophyletic. V. persica and V. polita formed a maximum clade, followed by sister to V. arvensis.

Keywords: Plantaginaceae; Veronica arvensis; phylogeny inference; plastid genome.

Figure 1.

The morphological characteristics of V. arvensis. A, B, C showing the photo of whole plant, flowers, and fruits, respectively (photos taken by Qi Li at Henan University).

Figure 2.

Plastid genome map of V. arvensis. The genes inside and outside of the circle are transcribed in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions, respectively.

Figure 3.

Comparative analysis of the nucleotide variability (Pi) values among seven Veronica species.

Figure 4.

Phylogenetic tree of Plantaginaceae inferred using maximum likelihood (ML) based on complete plastome sequences. Numbers above the branches represent bootstrap values from ML analyses.