Machilus is a large (c. 100 sp.) genus of trees in the family Lauraceae, distributed in tropical and subtropical East Asia. Both molecular species identification and phylogenetic studies of this morphologically uniform genus have been constrained by insufficient variable sites among frequently used biomarkers. To better understand the mutation patterns in the chloroplast genome of Machilus, the complete plastomes of two species were sequenced. The plastomes of Machilus yunnanensis and M. balansae were 152, 622 and 152, 721 bp, respectively. Seven highly variable regions between the two Machilus species were identified and 297 mutation events, including one micro-inversion in the ccsA-ndhD region, 65 indels, and 231 substitutions, were accurately located. Thirty-six microsatellite sites were found for use in species identification and 95 single-nucleotide changes were identified in gene coding regions.
Keywords: Lauraceae; Machilus; chloroplast; genome; mutation.