The Lycianthes plastome and its comparison with Capsicum (Capsiceae, Solanaceae)

Solanaceae is an important crop plant family and its plastomes have been extensively studied to understand evolution and breeding. Capsicum (chili peppers) includes five domesticated species and worldwide are important economic resources. Lycianthes is the third most species rich genus within the family. Capsicum and Lycianthes are closely related genera and form the Capsiceae. While plastomes are available in public databases for some species of Capsicum, no plastomes for Lycianthes have been published. We anticipate that the plastomes of Lycianthes and Capsicum will be similar. In addition, point sequence variation will generate robust phylogenetic hypotheses. We newly sequenced, assembled and annotated the plastomes of six species of Lycianthes to investigate their genomic characteristics. Also, we carried out comparative and phylogenetic analysis within Capsiceae. Lycianthes presented the typical circular quadripartite structure and organization. Plastomes range from 156,108 to 156,721 bp. All contained 133 genes, divided into 84 Coding DNA Sequence, four pseudogenes, 37 tRNAs and eight rRNAs. Plastomes of Capsiceae were highly conserved, were similar in size and showed the same structure and organization. Comparative analyses revealed that 17 genes made the Capsicum plastome longer than the plastome of Lycianthes. However, the variable regions did not match with the length of the genes. Based on plastome sequences, phylogeny recovered the monophyly of Capsiceae. Also, Capsicum and Lycianthes formed monophyletic genera and had a sister group relationship with each other. The plastome of Lycianthes and Capsicum were similar. Phylogenomics supported the monophyly of both genera and a sister group relationship.