Comparative Chloroplast Analysis and Phylogenetic Relationships Among Corylopsis Siebold & Zucc. (Hamamelidaceae)

Corylopsis Siebold & Zucc. (Hamamelidaceae) is widely used for horticultural plant and comprise ca. 25 species in East Asia (1 species in Korea; 4 species in Japan; 20 species in China). Previous revisions have gone from 7 to more than 30 species, causing confusion in the nursery industry and public gardens. Due to morphological similarity within Corylopsis, molecular research is needed to distinguish it. In this study, the chloroplast genome of C. gotoana and C. pauciflora distributed in Japan was completed by using NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) technique. The genome size of C. gotoana and C. pauciflora were 159,434 bp (large single-copy (LSC): 88,164 bp; small single-copy (SSC): 18,702 bp; inverted repeat regions (IRs): 26,284 bp) and 159,363 bp (LSC: 88,097 bp; SSC: 18,700 bp; IRs: 26,283 bp), respectively. In addition, we investigated the repeats, SNPs, and indels, and that could be used as DNA markers. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that C. pauciflora was sister to C. gotoana and C. spicata. The genus Corylopsis is a monophyletic group and Loropetalum is closely related to Corylopsis. The results of our study will provide the basic data necessary for the analysis of the species identification markers and genetic diversity within the genus Corylopsis in the future.