Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of traditional Tibetan herb, Rheum Pumilum Maxim. (Polygonaceae)

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2019 Dec 13;5(1):133-135. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2019.1698344.

Abstract

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of traditional Tibetan herb, Rheum pumilum Maxim. was analyzed. The complete chloroplast genome of R. pumilum is 162,213 bp in size and has a 27.27% GC content. In the typical circular quadripartite structure, there was a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions with 31,023 bp in length, which separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region (87,424 bp) and a small single-copy (SSC) region (12,743 bp). The chloroplast genome of R. pumilum contained 131 unigenes, which was composed of 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA and 8 rRNA genes. Moreover, 238 SSRs were identified and 58.8% of them existed in LSC region. A maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast genomes indicated that R. pumilum was closely related to R. pulmatum, R. tangutica, and R. officinale. Our results would provide a valuable resource for resource utilization and the phylogenetic studies of Rheum in Polygonaceae.

Keywords: Rheum pumilum Maxim.; chloroplast genome; phylogenetic analysis.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Foundation of Science in Qinghai [2017-ZJ-702; 2019-ZJ-976Q], and the Construction Project for Innovation Platform of Qinghai Province [2017-ZJ-Y14].