Lu, Lu Li, Xia Hao, Zhaodong Yang, Liming Zhang, Jingbo Peng, Ye Xu, Haibin Lu, Ye Zhang, Jin Shi, Jisen Chen, Jinhui Cheng, Tielong Phylogenetic studies and comparative chloroplast genome analyses elucidate the basal position of halophyte <i>Nitraria sibirica</i> (Nitrariaceae) in the Sapindales <p><i>Nitraria sibirica</i> is a halophyte and belongs to the family Nitrariaceae. The chloroplast genome of <i>Nitraria sibirica</i> (159,466 bp) has a quadripartite structure, which consists of a large single-copy (87,914 bp) region, a small single-copy (18,316 bp) region, and a pair of inverted repeats (26,618 bp). Sequencing analyses indicate that the chloroplast genome contains 113 distinct genes, including 79 peptide-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and 4 ribosomal RNA genes. We also identified 105 perfect simple sequence repeats, 12 most divergent non-coding regions, and 6 most divergent coding regions when compared to the chloroplast genomes of the Sapindales plants. Phylogenetic analyses using the concatenated amino acid sequences of 58 protein-coding genes from 48 species suggest that the ‘basal’ position of <i>Nitraria sibirica</i> belongs to the Sapindales clade. We also found that the inverted repeat expansion resulted in a duplication of <i>rps19</i> in <i>Nitraria sibirica</i> when comparing its chloroplast genome structure with <i>Theobroma cacao</i>, <i>Vitis vinifera</i>, <i>Eucalyptus erythrocorys</i> and <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>. The duplication of <i>rps19</i> gene was consistent with that in <i>Zanthoxylum piperitum</i>, <i>Azadirachta indica</i>, <i>Sapindus mukorossi</i> and <i>Citrus sinensis</i>, all of which belong to the order Sapindales, but different from most Rosids plants. In summary, the analyses of <i>Nitraria sibirica</i> chloroplast genome not only provide insights into comparative genome analysis, but also pave the way for a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships within the Sapindales.</p> Nitraria sibirica;phylogenetic analysis;comparative chloroplast genome;inverted repeat expansion 2017-07-15
    https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Phylogenetic_studies_and_comparative_chloroplast_genome_analyses_elucidate_the_basal_position_of_halophyte_i_Nitraria_sibirica_i_Nitrariaceae_in_the_Sapindales/5212063
10.6084/m9.figshare.5212063.v1