Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Microcycas calocoma (Zamiaceae), an Endangered monotypic cycad species from Cuba

Jian Liu; Anders J Lindstrom; Xun Gong

doi:10.1080/23802359.2019.1679683

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Microcycas calocoma (Zamiaceae), an Endangered monotypic cycad species from Cuba

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2019 Oct 23;4(2):3695-3697. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2019.1679683.

Authors

Jian Liu^{1

2}, Anders J Lindstrom³, Xun Gong^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
² Key Laboratory of Economic Plants and Biotechnology, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
³ Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Chon Buri, Sattahip, Thailand.

Abstract

Microcycas calocoma is the monotypic species from the critical endangered and endemic cycad genus Microcycas in Cuba, an important taxon to study the evolution of extant gymnosperms. Here we report the complete chloroplast sequences of M. calocoma and characterize the genome structure of this species. The genome size of M. calocoma is 165,667 bp in length which contains 135 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, eight ribosomal RNA genes and 39 transfer RNA genes. The GC content of this genome is 39.6%. Phylogenomic study shows M. calocoma is mostly closely related to the cycad genus Zamia, which corresponds to previous studies based on multiple nuclear genes and combined plastid and nuclear evidence. The plastome information of M. calocoma offered by this study can contribute to further comparative chloroplast genome in cycads/gymnosperms as well as conservation genetic studies of M. calocoma.

Keywords: Critical Endangered; Cuba; Cycad; Microcycas calocoma; chloroplast genome.