The species of Paris are famous herbal essence for the elements like steroidal saponins with effective pharmacological therapy. However, wild resources of P. marmorata and P. luquanensis are rapidly declining as consequence of their slow growth and low levels of artificial cultivation, but overexploitation for the economic value. What is more serious is that the wild plants are hard to find, but little is known about the sequence diversity and structure divergence of their chloroplast genomes. 

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) assembled the complete chloroplast genome sequences of Sect. Marmorata, i.e., P. marmorata and P. luquanensis, annotated and explored subsequent genome-wide comparative analyses. 

The chloroplast genomes exhibit a typical quadripartite structure of LSC and SSC regions separated by a pair of IRs, and they share similar features in the terms of gene organization and AT-rich content. Large repeats, polymorphic SSR loci, as well as genes and intergenic regions with high levels of variability were determined. 

Almost all the chloroplastic protein-coding genes bias ended with A/U. Mutations and selection forces, particularly natural selection, shaped the codon bias pattern of most genes. 

Therefore, this study enhances the understanding about evolution of Sect. Marmorata from the chloroplast genome, and provide genomic insights into genetic analyses of Sect. Marmorata. 

The study entitled “Comparative chloroplast genomes of Paris Sect. Marmorata: insights into repeat regions and evolutionary implications” has been published in BMC Genomics.  

Contact 

LIU Channing  Ph.D Principal Investigator  

Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun 666303, Yunnan, China    

E-mail: liuchangning@xtbg.ac.cn