The chloroplast genome sequence of bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara): Plastid genome structure evolution in Solanaceae

Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara) is a native Old World member of the nightshade family. This European diploid species can be found from marshlands to high mountainous regions and it is a common weed that serves as an alternative host and source of resistance genes against plant pathogens such as late blight (Phytophthora infestans). We sequenced the complete chloroplast genome of bittersweet, which is 155,580 bp in length and it is characterized by a typical quadripartite structure composed of a large (85,901 bp) and small (18,449 bp) single-copy region interspersed by two identical inverted repeats (25,615 bp). It consists of 112 unique genes from which 81 are protein-coding, 27 tRNA and four rRNA genes. All bittersweet plastid genes including non-functional ones and even intergenic spacer regions are transcribed in primary plastid transcripts covering 95.22% of the genome. These are later substantially edited in a post-transcriptional phase to activate gene functions. By comparing the bittersweet plastid genome with all available Solanaceae sequences we found that gene content and synteny are highly conserved across the family. During genome comparison we have identified several annotation errors, which we have corrected in a manual curation process then we have identified the major plastid genome structural changes in Solanaceae. Interpreted in a phylogenetic context they seem to provide additional support for larger clades. The plastid genome sequence of bittersweet could help to benchmark Solanaceae plastid genome annotations and could be used as a reference for further studies. Such reliable annotations are important for gene diversity calculations, synteny map constructions and assigning partitions for phylogenetic analysis with de novo sequenced plastomes of Solanaceae.