Insight into infrageneric circumscription through complete chloroplast genome sequences of two Trillium species

Genomic events including gene loss, duplication, pseudogenization and rearrangement in plant genomes are valuable sources for exploring and understanding the process of evolution in angiosperms. The family Melanthiaceae is distributed in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and divided into five tribes (Heloniadeae, Chionographideae, Xerophylleae, Melanthieae and Parideae) based on the molecular phylogenetic analyses. At present, complete chloroplast genomes of the Melanthiaceae have been reported from three species. In the previous genomic study of Liliales, a trnI-CAU gene duplication event was reported from Paris verticillata, a member of Parideae. To clarify the significant genomic events of the tribe Parideae, we analysed the complete chloroplast genome sequences of two Trillium species representing two subgenera: Trillium and Phyllantherum. In Trillium tschonoskii (subgenus Trillium), the circular double-stranded cpDNA sequence of 156 852 bp consists of two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26 501 bp each, a large single-copy (LSC) region of 83 981 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 19 869 bp. The chloroplast genome sequence of T. maculatum (subgenus Phyllantherum) is 157 359 bp in length, consisting of two IRs (25 535 bp), one SSC (19 949 bp) and one LSC (86 340 bp), and is longer than that of T. tschonoskii. The results showed that the cpDNAs of Parideae are highly conserved across genome structure, gene order and contents. However, the chloroplast genome of T. maculatum contained a 3.4-kb inverted sequence between ndhC and rbcL in the LSC region, and it was a unique feature for subgenera Phyllantherum. In addition, we found three different types of gene duplication in the intergenic spacer between rpl23 and ycf2 containing trnI-CAU, which were in agreement with the circumscription of subgenera and sections in Parideae excluding T. govanianum. These genomic features provide informative molecular markers for identifying the infrageneric taxa of Trillium and improve our understanding of the evolution patterns of Parideae in Melanthiaceae.