Complete Chloroplast Genome of Four Thai Native Dioscorea Species: Structural, Comparative and Phylogenetic Analyses

The chloroplast genomes of Dioscorea brevipetiolata, D. depauperata, D. glabra, and D. pyrifolia are 153,370–153,503 bp in size. A total of 113 genes were predicted, including 79 protein-coding sequences (CDS), 30 tRNA, and four rRNA genes. The overall GC content for all four species was 37%. Only mono-, di-, and trinucleotides were present in the genome. Genes adjacent to the junction borders were similar in all species analyzed. Eight distinct indel variations were detected in the chloroplast genome alignment of 24 Dioscorea species. At a cut-off point of Pi = 0.03, a sliding window analysis based on 25 chloroplast genome sequences of Dioscorea species revealed three highly variable regions, which included three CDS (trnC, ycf1, and rpl32), as well as an intergenic spacer region, ndhF-rpl32. A phylogenetic tree based on the complete chloroplast genome sequence displayed an almost fully resolved relationship in Dioscorea. However, D. brevipetiolata, D. depauperata, and D. glabra were clustered together with D. alata, while D. pyrifolia was closely related to D. aspersa. As Dioscorea is a diverse genus, genome data generated in this study may contribute to a better understanding of the genetic identity of these species, which would be useful for future taxonomic work of Dioscorea.