Chlorophytum Ker-Gawl. is a large and taxonomically complex genus, that comprises about 215 species, six subspecies, and 14 varieties in the subfamily Agavoideae in the Asparagaceae family. The genus Chlorophytum includes many economically important species well-known for medicinal, ornamental, and horticultural values. Currently, there is little data available on the genetic structures of Chlorophytum, especially on their detailed phylogenetic placement or chloroplast genomes. Only one nucleotide sequence of Chlorophytum (C. rhizopendulum) has been published. 

Flora and Plant Taxonomy in Eastern Africa Research Group of CAS key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture at Wuhan Botanical Garden firstly analyzed the complete chloroplast(cp) genomes of two Chlorophytum (C. comosum and C. gallabatense) collected from Kenya.   

The cp genomes of of C. comosum and C. gallabatense were 154,248 and 154,154  base pairs in size, respectively. Both C. comosum and C. gallabatense  cp genome features were similar to other reported species in the Asparagaceae family with respect to gene content, order, and orientation. The group detected a total of 112 unique genes in C. comosum and C. gallabatense cp genomes, which included 78 PCGs, four rRNA, and 30 tRNA genes (Figure 1).   

Nucleotide analysis revealed the highest nucleotide diversity was in rps12/clpP and rps15/ycf1 regions, which were highly variable regions that can be used as potential markers in family Asparagaceae for species identification and phylogeny.    

Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the previous phylogeny and produced a phylogenetic tree with similar topology. It showed that the Chlorophytum species were clustered together in the same clade with a closer relationship than other plants to the A. ramosum (Figure 2).   

This study provides valuable genetic information of Chlorophytum which can aid in further phylogenetic studies, speecies identification, evolutionary relationships between Chlorophytum and Anthericum.   

The research entitled "Complete Chloroplast Genomes ofChlorophytum comosum andChlorophytum gallabatense: Genome Structures, Comparative and Phylogenetic Analysis" was published in plants. it was supported by grants from the Backbone Talents Project of Wuhan Botanical Garden, Sino-Africa Joint Research Center and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.   

Kenyan student Jacinta N. Munyao and Chinese student DONG Xiang are the co-first authors. Professor HU Guangwan is the corresponding author. Several students from the group participated in the study. 

Figure1. Map of the C. comosum and C. gallabatense complete cp genomes (Image by WBG) 

Figure2. Phylogenetic trees of Asparagales species, based on whole chloroplast genome sequences (Image by WBG)