The Complete Plastid Genome Sequence of Iris gatesii (Section Oncocyclus), a Bearded Species from Southeastern Turkey

Iris gatesii is a rare bearded species in subgenus Iris section Oncocyclus that occurs in steppe communities of southeastern Turkey. This species is not commonly cultivated, but related species in section Iris are economically important horticultural plants. The complete plastid genome is reported for I. gatesii based on data generated using the Illumina HiSeq platform and is compared to genomes of 16 species selected from across the monocotyledons. This Iris genome is the only known plastid genome available for order Asparagales that is not from Orchidaceae. The I. gatesii plastid genome, unlike orchid genomes, has little gene loss and rearrangement and is likely to be similar to other genomes from Asparagales. The plastid genome of I. gatesii demonstrates expansion of the inverted repeat, loss of 95% of the rps19–rpl22 intergenic spacer, the presence of introns in several protein-coding regions, and alternate start codons. Potentially variable regions are identified for further study.