We announce here the first complete chloroplast genome sequence of Tetrastigma planicaule, one important Chinese folk medicinal plant. This complete chloroplast genome is 160,323 bp in length. In total, 131 genes were identified, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The results of phylogenetic analysis indicated that Tetrastigma is a separate genus and is closely related to Vitis.

We announce here the first complete chloroplast genome sequence of Lagerstroemia balansae, a plant species with extremely small populations rated the level of EN (Endangered) in China. This complete chloroplast genome is 152316 bp in size. In total, 130 genes were identified, including 85 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes. The result of phylogenetic analysis strongly supported that L. balansae was closely related to L. tomentosa.

No abstract

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Ait.) Hassk is a flowering evergreen plant with traditional medicine and ornamental usages. This study aimed to develop a set of EST-SSRs markers for genetic diversity analysis of R. tomentosa. Transcriptome sequencing was performed to obtain the expressed sequence tags in different plant tissues. A total of 51,486 unigenes with a mean length of 1,173 bp were achieved. 18,879 SSRs were identified in 14,132 unigenes, in which 3,541 unigenes contained more than one SSR. The top three SSR repeat types were mononucleotide (8,126, 43.04%), dinucleotide (5,846, 31.06%) and trinucleotide (4,610, 24.42%). The most abundance motifs were A/T (7,816, 41.40%), followed by AG/CT (5,002, 26.50%) and AAG/CTT (934, 4.95%). Of these SSRs, 11,726 SSRs were eligible for designing of flanking primers. Among the 100 randomly selected primers, 50 primers generated corresponding PCR products, whereas 23 primers were polymorphic. Thirteen primers with good reproducibility were used to characterize the genetic relationship of sixteen natural R. tomentosa plants. The mean value of observed heterozygosity (Ho), expected heterozygosity (He), fixation index (Fst), and Shannon information index (I) were 0.240, 0.414, 0.413, and 0.641, respectively. UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages) dendrogram divided the sixteen R. tomentosa plants into five groups, which were able to distinguish the plants according to geographical origin. This study presented a set of EST-SSRs that could be useful for population genetic relationship analysis in R. tomentosa.

Bambusa tuldoides f. swolleninternode is an attractive ornamental bamboo species of southern China, with highly shortened and swollen at the base of internodes. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of B. tuldoides was sequenced and reported for the first time. The complete genome size is 139,460 base pairs (bp), including a large single-copy (LSC) region of 82,996 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 12,876 bp and a pair of invert repeats (IR) regions of 21,794 bp. The plastid genome contained 132 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the genome is 39%. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that B. tuldoides is closely related to B. dolichoclada , B. pachinensis var. hirsutissima , and B. utilis, three species in Bambusa based on 16 chloroplast genomes.