Comparative Analysis of the Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Four Chestnut Species (Castanea)

Chloroplast (cp) DNA genomes are traditional workhorses for studying the evolution of species and reconstructing phylogenetic relationships in plants. Species genus Castanea (chestnuts chinquapins) valued as a source nuts timber wherever they grow, chestnut hybrids common. We compared cp C. mollissima, seguinii, henryi, pumila. These ranged from 160,805 bp to 161,010 length, comprising pair inverted repeat (IR) regions (25,685 25,701 bp) separated by large single-copy (LSC) region (90,440 90,560 small (SSC) (18,970 19,049 bp). Each genome encoded same 113 genes; 82–83 protein-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA four ribosomal genes. There were 18 duplicated genes IRs. Comparative analysis revealed that rpl22 was absent all analyzed species, gene ycf1 has been pseudo-genized Chinese chestnuts except pumlia. repeats nucleotide substitutions these plastomes detected several highly variable regions. The analyses based on confirmed monophyly species.