Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Taxillus chinensis (Loranthaceae): a hemiparasitic shrub in South China

Abstract

Taxillus chinensis (DC) Danser, which is a hemiparasitic shrub distributed in southern China and Southeast Asian countries, is wildly used in various traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of the T. chinensis was assembled from the whole genome Illumina sequencing data. The complete plastome is a typical quadripartite structure with a length of 121,305 bp, which contained two inverted repeats (IRs) of 22,460 bp separated by a large single-copy (LSC) and a small single copy (SSC) of 70,295 bp and 6090 bp, respectively. The plastome contains 106 genes, comprising 66 protein-coding genes, 28 tRNA genes, eight rRNA genes, and four processed pseudogenes. The overall GC content of the plastome is 37.4%, which is unevenly distributed across the whole chloroplast genome. The phylogenetic analysis shows that T. chinensis was closely related to the congeneric species T. sutchuenensis.

Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Hemiparasitic Taxillus chinensis (DC.) Danser

“…The genome assembly of the root parasite Santalum album (Santalaceae), which instead exhibits strong photosynthetic ability, has been sequenced and deposited in the NCBI database (GCA_002911635.1). Yet, the reference genome of T. chinensis has not been reported, despite the fact that its plastome has been sequenced and analyzed phylogenetically ( Liu, Zhang, et al 2019 ).…”

Taxillus chinensis (DC.) Danser: a comprehensive review on botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology

“…In addition, it is distributed in some Southeast Asian nations, such as Malaya, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Borneo, and the Philippines (Fig. 1 ) [ 3 ]. T. chinensis is a hemi-parasitic plant that is more likely to be parasitic on medium and large trees, such as willow ( Salix babylonica ), maple poplar ( Pterocarya stenoptera ), and platanus ( Platanus acerifolia ).…”