Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of the Chinese crabapple Malus prunifolia (Rosales: Rosaceae: Maloideae)

• DOI: 10.1007/s12686-016-0540-0
• Publication Date: 2016-05-09T03:51:12Z
• Authors: Lu Bao; Ke Li; Zhen Liu; Mingyu Han; Dong Zhang
• Keywords: GC-content; Malus

Malus prunifolia is a species of crabapple tree with high ecological and economic values. In this study, we assembled its complete chloroplast genome from high-throughput sequencing data. The circular double-stranded genome is 160,041 bp in length, and exhibits a typical quadripartite structure of the large (LSC, 88,119 bp) and small (SSC, 19,204 bp) single-copy regions, separated by a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRs, 26,359 bp each). It contains 129 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes (77 PCG species), 37 transfer RNA genes (30 tRNA species) and eight ribosomal RNA genes (four rRNA species). The nucleotide composition is asymmetric (31.32 % A, 18.64 % C, 17.92 % G & 32.12 % T) with an overall A+T content of 63.44 %. Phylogenetic analysis corroborated the traditional morphological taxonomy of the family Rosaceae, and indicated that M. prunifolia was phylogenetically closely related to the genus Pyrus.