Carya illinoinensis
is an economically important nut tree, and its chloroplast (cp.) genome has been reported; however, its mitochondrial (mt) genome remains unknown. In the present study, we assembled the first mt genome of
C. illinoinensis
. The circular mt genome of
C. illinoinensis
is 495,205 bp long, with 37 protein-coding genes(PCGs), 24 tRNA genes, and 3 rRNA genes. All the tRNAs could be folded into typical cloverleaf secondary structures, with lengths of 58–88 bp. A conserved U-U-C-x-A-x2 consensus nucleotide sequence was discovered in the Ψ–loops of tRNA sequences. In addition, 447 dispersed repeats were detected, as well as found 482 RNA editing sites and 9,960 codons in the mt genome. Furthermore, a total of 27 DNA sequences with a length of 43,277 bp were transferred from the cp. to the mt genome, and eight integrated cp-derived genes (
trnL-CAA
,
trnV-GAC
,
trnD-GUC
,
trnW-CCA
,
trnN-GUU
,
trnH-GUG
,
trnM-CAU
, and
rps7
) were identified. We also obtained 1,086 hits, including 364.023 kp of nuclear genome sequences, that were transferred to the mt genome. To determine the evolutionary position of
C. illinoinensis
, we conducted a phylogenetic analysis of the mitogenomes of
C. illinoinensis
and 14 other taxa. The results strongly suggested that
C. illinoinensis
and
Fagus sylvatica
formed a single clade with 100% bootstrap support. This study sequenced comprehensive data on the
C. illinoinensis
mitochondrial genome and provided insights into the conserved sequences of tRNA genes, which could facilitate evolutionary research in other
Carya
trees in the future.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-75324-1.