Plastid genomes of four species of Iris from subgenus Scorpiris

Abstract

The taxonomic complexity of Iris (Iridaceae) is high, and its molecular phylogeny remains largely unknown. With the growing availability of full plastid genomes of species representing major taxonomic groups within Iris, it will become possible to produce a robust phylogenetic tree and reconstruct the evolutionary history of the genus. With this objective in mind, we sequenced and analyzed the chloroplast genomes of four species from subgenus Scorpiris native to Uzbekistan: Iris austrotschatkalica, I. pseudocapnoides, I. victoris and I. hippolyti. The phylogenetic tree obtained agreed well with those produced earlier with a limited number of chloroplast markers. We suggest as the most useful for phylogenetic analyses of Iris the following loci that show high variability and lack of loop structures: atpF/atpH, rps15/ycf1, atpA/atpF, trnL-UAA/trnF-GAA, trnG-UCC/trnR-UCU, and psaA/ycf3.