ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Systematics and Evolution
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1620373
This article is part of the Research TopicEvolutionary Dynamics, Functional Variation and Application of Plant Organellar GenomeView all 25 articles
Unraveling the Mitochondrial Genome of Quercus litseoides: A Step Towards Conservation of an Endangered Species
Provisionally accepted
Ruo-Han Shen1,2
Yu Li1
Liang-Hai Yang1
Si-Si Zheng1Xu Yan1
Gregor Kozlowski1,3,4
Xi-Ling Dai2*
Yi-Gang Song1*- 1Eastern China Conservation Centre for Wild Endangered Plant Resources, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai, China
- 2College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
- 3Department of Biology and Botanic Garden, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
- 4Natural History Museum Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Compared to the large number of chloroplast genome resources in Quercus, only six mitogenomes (belonging to three sections) have been reported. To date, no mitogenome has been reported for Quercus section Cyclobalanopsis. Quercus litseoides, a representative species whose chloroplast genome has been characterized, is an endangered tree endemic to the montane cloud forests of southern China. Here, we successfully assembled the mitogenome of section Cyclobalanopsis (Q. litseoides) for the first time, revealing a multipartite structure composed of three continuous segments with 516,686 bp in length. The genome encoded 38 protein-coding genes, 23 transfer RNA genes, and three ribosomal RNA genes. Repeat analysis uncovered diverse simple sequence repeats and interspersed sequences, and codon usage showed clear biases. Nonsynonymous sites of RNA editing showed 12 different effects on amino acids. Notably, a small amount (1.20%) of DNA sequences occurred gene transfer events between organelles in Q. litseoides. Comparative synteny analysis revealed substantial structural variation among oak mitogenomes. Quercus litseoides was closely related to Q. cerris in both the mitochondrial and chloroplast trees. This work fills a critical gap in mitochondrial genomic resources for Quercus section Cyclobalanopsis, and provides new insights into the structural diversity and evolutionary dynamics. It also establishes a valuable genomic foundation for phylogenetic reconstruction, adaptive evolution research, and the conservation of endangered Quercus species.
Keywords: Cyclobalanopsis, Mitochondrial Genome, Fagaceae, Repeated sequence, phylogenetic relationship
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Li, Yang, Zheng, Yan, Kozlowski, Dai and Song. 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:
Xi-Ling Dai, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Yi-Gang Song, Eastern China Conservation Centre for Wild Endangered Plant Resources, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.