ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Plant Bioinformatics

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1586341

This article is part of the Research TopicEvolutionary Dynamics, Functional Variation and Application of Plant Organellar GenomeView all 17 articles

De novo assembly and comparative analysis of the first complete mitogenome in Distylium (Distylium racemosum)

Provisionally accepted
Yaling  WangYaling Wang1*Zhongxiao  ZhangZhongxiao Zhang1Xinru  ChenXinru Chen1Honghe  LiHonghe Li1Chi  MaChi Ma1Penghui  GuoPenghui Guo2
  • 1School of Life Sciences and Engineering, Northwest University for Nationalities, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
  • 2Northwest University for Nationalities, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The genus Distylium (Hamamelidaceae) is highly valued for its applications in ornamental horticulture, industry, and construction. Although plastid genomes (plastomes) of multiple Distylium species have been characterized, no mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) have been reported for this genus. In this study, we assembled and annotated the complete mitogenome of Distylium racemosum using HiFi sequencing data. The mitogenome comprises a longer circular chromosome and a shorter linear chromosome (904,264 bp in total length), revealing a structurally complex conformation. We annotated 67 genes, including 43 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 21 tRNA genes, and three rRNA genes. Analyses identified exceptionally high repetitive sequence content, with 304 simple sequence repeats, 1,508 dispersed repeats, and 50 tandem repeats, representing the highest repeat content among Saxifragales mitogenomes to date. Additionally, 49 mitochondrial plastid DNA sequences were detected, including only one complete plastid-derived gene (trnC-GCA) transferred to the mitogenome. We predicted 697 RNA editing sites across 42 PCGs, further underscoring the genome’s dynamic evolution. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on mitogenomes and plastomes from 18 species indicated D. racemosum occupied a basal position within Saxifragales, which is consistent with the APG IV classification system. This study provides the first comprehensive mitogenomic resource for the Distylium genus, offering valuable insights for molecular classification, species identification, and germplasm conservation of Distylium plants.

Keywords: Distylium racemosum, Mitochondrial Genome, phylogenetic analysis, RNA editing events, comparative analysis

Received: 02 Mar 2025; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhang, Chen, Li, Ma and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yaling Wang, School of Life Sciences and Engineering, Northwest University for Nationalities, Lanzhou, 730030, Gansu Province, China

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