Analysis of the complete plastomes of Bidens pilosa L. 1753 (Asteraceae, Coreopsideae) from Beijing, China reveals high genetic diversity and possible misidentifications

Bidens pilosa L. 1753 is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant, traditionally used in foods and medicines. In this study, we sequenced, assembled, and characterized the complete plastome of B. pilosa from Beijing, China. The plastome (MN385242) is circularized with a conservative quadripartite structure. Its length is 150,524 bp, including a large single-copy region (83,535 bp), a small single-copy region (17,627 bp), and a pair of inverted repeat regions (each 24,681 bp). The plastome consists of 128 genes, including 78 unique protein-coding, 28 unique tRNA, and 4 unique rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analyses showed all five B. pilosa plants couldn’t form a monophyletic clade and were separated into three clades. The results of K2P distance and molecular markers were all consistent with those of phylogenetic analysis, revealing high genetic diversity and even possible misidentifications of the B. pilosa. Our results highlighted the importance of correct species identification of materials in medicinal products.