Academic Editor: Kevin Cianfaglione
Background: Cardamine flexuosa is considered to be two
separate species in the Cardamine genus based on their geographical
distribution: European C. flexuosa and Eastern Asian C. flexuosa. These
two species have not shown any morphological differences to distinguish each
other. Recently, the Eastern Asian species has been regarded as Cardamine
occulta by their ecological habitats. Therefore, we are interested in analyzing
the C. occulta chloroplast genome and its characteristics at the
molecular level. Methods: Here, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of
C. occulta was assembled de novo with next-generation sequencing
technology and various bioinformatics tools applied for comparative studies.
Results: The C. occulta cp genome had a quadripartite
structure, 154,796 bp in size, consisting of one large single-copy region of
83,836 bp and one small single-copy region of 17,936 bp, separated by two
inverted repeats (IRa and IRb) regions of 26,512 bp. This complete cp genome
harbored 113 unique genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, 29 tRNA, and four
rRNA genes. Of these, six PCGs, eight tRNA, and four rRNA genes were duplicated
in the IR region, and one gene, infA, was a pseudogene. Comparative
analysis showed that all the species of Cardamine encoded a small
variable number of repeats and SSRs in their cp genome. In addition, 56
divergences (Pi