ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Systematics and Evolution
This article is part of the Research TopicEvolutionary Dynamics, Functional Variation and Application of Plant Organellar Genome, volume IIView all 4 articles
Comparative Analyses of the Organelle Genomes in Jacaratia spinosa (Caricaceae)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Centre for Genomics and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, Key Laboratory of Genetics, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- 2College of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Putian University, Putian, 351100, China, Putian, China
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Jacaratia spinosa (Aubl.) A. DC. (J. spinosa) is an important member of the Caricaceae family, valued for its edible properties and potential for protease development. However, organelle genome resources for this species have not been publicly available. We sequenced and assembled the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of J. spinosa. The circular mitochondrial genome spans 461,675 bp, and encodes 40 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 26 tRNA genes, and 3 rRNA genes. The complete chloroplast genome is 160,000 bp in length, comprising 84 PCGs, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Both genomes contain numerous repetitive sequences. Codon usage analysis revealed a preference for leucine and codons ending with A or U, and several non-canonical start and stop codons were corrected via RNA editing. We identified 34 homologous sequence fragments, indicating frequent intracellular gene transfer events between the mitochondrion and chloroplast. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that J. spinosa is most closely related to C. papaya among the species included, forming a sister group. Synteny analysis revealed that while the chloroplast genome of J. spinosa is highly conserved, the mitochondrial genome exhibited high similarity but with notable structural rearrangements. Selection pressure analysis indicated that the mitochondrial genes ccmFN and rps19, as well as the chloroplast genes ycf2 and rps4, are under positive selection. These findings expand the organelle genome resources for Caricaceae and provide valuable molecular evidence for phylogenetic and evolutionary studies within the family.
Keywords: Chloroplast genome, comparative analysis, gene transfer, Jacaratia spinosa, Mitochondrial Genome, phylogenetic analysis, repeat sequences, RNA editing events
Received: 23 Sep 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zuo, LIN, Chen, Pan, Zhu and Ming. 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:
Sihui Zhu
Ray Ming
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