Assembly of 23 Plastid Genomes Provides the Chloroplast View onMiscanthusOrigins

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Despite its economic importance as a new biofuel resource, little work has been done on the large-scale phylogenetics of <jats:italic>Miscanthus</jats:italic>. Twenty-three complete <jats:italic>Miscanthus</jats:italic> chloroplasts were assembled and annotated. A phylogeny was performed with these assemblies, which shows the relationships between the main <jats:italic>Miscanthus</jats:italic> species and sub-species. The phylogeny demonstrates that there is no meaningful distinction between <jats:italic>Miscanthus floridulus</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Miscanthus transmorrisonensis</jats:italic> as the accessions are not distinct. However, at the crown of the tree there is a clear distinction between <jats:italic>M. sinensis malepartus</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>M. sinensis condensatus</jats:italic> subspecies. The phylogeny reaveals that the female parent of <jats:italic>Miscanthus xgiganteus</jats:italic> is <jats:italic>Miscanthus lutarioriparius</jats:italic> rather than <jats:italic>Miscanthus sacchariflorus</jats:italic>. The phylogeny also shows a novel hybrid between <jats:italic>Miscanthus oligostachyus</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Miscanthus sinensis</jats:italic>, a grouping to which <jats:italic>Miscanthus sinensis</jats:italic> var Purpurascens belongs. This hybrid form is named <jats:italic>Miscanthus</jats:italic> ×<jats:italic>oligostachyus</jats:italic>.</jats:p>