ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Bioinformatics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1619267
This article is part of the Research TopicEvolutionary Dynamics, Functional Variation and Application of Plant Organellar GenomeView all 23 articles
Complete Plastome and Mitogenome Assembly of Endangered tree Karpatiosorbus bristoliensis Reveals Phylogenetic Architecture for Sorbus Sensu Lato (Rosaceae)
Provisionally accepted
Qiang Li1*
Ran Wei2- 1Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
- 2Maanshan University, Maanshan, China
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The genus Sorbus sensu lato (Sorbus s.l.) comprises over 260 species widely distributed across temperate regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. However, hybridization and polyploidization have posed significant challenges to phylogenetic and taxonomic studies within this genus. Here, we assemble the first complete chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes of Karpatiosorbus bristoliensis to characterize organellar genomic features and establish a maternally inherited phylogenetic framework for Sorbus s.l. The mitochondrial genome of K. bristoliensis is circular (386,757 bp), encoding 55 genes, including 34 protein-coding genes, 18 rRNAs, and 3 tRNAs. Its chloroplast genome has a typical quadripartite structure (160,322 bp), containing 75 protein-coding genes, 29 tRNA genes, 4 rRNA genes, and one pseudogene (ycf1Ψ). Homologous gene transfer analysis of Sorbus s.l. species revealed inter-organellar gene transfer ranging from 3,021 to 3,846 bp. RNA editing analysis revealed 274 -352 editing sites in Sorbus s.l., with nad4 containing the greatest number of editing sites across all protein-coding genes except those in K. bristoliensis. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) analysis detected 48-52 SSRs per species, predominantly mononucleotide repeats. Phylogenetic reconstruction on the basis of organellar genomes revealed that Karpatiosorbus is a sister to Torminalis. Plastomebased phylogeny revealed the non-monophyletic status of Sorbus s.s., attributed to the nested placement of the hybrid-origin genus Hedlundia and Scandosorbus within the genus. Additionally, Hedlundia austriaca and H. persica should be transferred to the nothogenus Sorbomeles. Mitochondrial genome collinearity analysis revealed extensive genomic structural rearrangements. Our findings not only delineate the structural characteristics of mitochondrial genomes across Sorbus s.l. taxa but also establish a high-resolution maternal phylogenetic framework for this genus.
Keywords: Karpatiosorbus bristoliensis, Sorbus s.l., Mitochondrial Genome, RNA editing events, gene transfer, phylogenetic analysis
Received: 27 Apr 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li and Wei. 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: Qiang Li, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
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