TY - JOUR
T1 - Complete Chloroplast Genome of the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis): Structure and Evolution
AU - Yap, Jia-Yee
AU - Rohner, Thore
AU - Greenfield, Abigail
AU - van der Merwe, Marlien
AU - McPherson, Hannah
AU - Glenn, Wendy
AU - Kornfeld, Geoff
AU - Marendy, Elessa
AU - Pan, Annie
AU - Wilton, Alan
AU - Wilkins, Marc
AU - Rossetto, Maurizio
AU - Delaney, Sven
PY - 2015/6/10
Y1 - 2015/6/10
N2 - The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) is a rare Southern conifer with striking morphological similarity to fossil pines. A small population of W. nobilis was discovered in 1994 in a remote canyon system in the Wollemi National Park (near Sydney, Australia). This population contains fewer than 100 individuals and is critically endangered. Previous genetic studies of the Wollemi pine have investigated its evolutionary relationship with other pines in the family Araucariaceae, and have suggested that the Wollemi pine genome contains little or no variation. However, these studies were performed prior to the widespread use of genome sequencing, and their conclusions were based on a limited fraction of the Wollemi pine genome. In this study, we address this problem by determining the entire sequence of the W. nobilis chloroplast genome. A detailed analysis of the structure of the genome is presented, and the evolution of the genome is inferred by comparison with the chloroplast sequences of other members of the Araucariaceae and the related family Podocarpaceae. Pairwise alignments of whole genome sequences, and the presence of unique pseudogenes, gene duplications and insertions in W. nobilis and Araucariaceae, indicate that the W. nobilis chloroplast genome is most similar to that of its sister taxon Agathis. However, the W. nobilis genome contains an unusually high number of repetitive sequences, and these could be used in future studies to investigate and conserve any remnant genetic diversity in the Wollemi pine.
AB - The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) is a rare Southern conifer with striking morphological similarity to fossil pines. A small population of W. nobilis was discovered in 1994 in a remote canyon system in the Wollemi National Park (near Sydney, Australia). This population contains fewer than 100 individuals and is critically endangered. Previous genetic studies of the Wollemi pine have investigated its evolutionary relationship with other pines in the family Araucariaceae, and have suggested that the Wollemi pine genome contains little or no variation. However, these studies were performed prior to the widespread use of genome sequencing, and their conclusions were based on a limited fraction of the Wollemi pine genome. In this study, we address this problem by determining the entire sequence of the W. nobilis chloroplast genome. A detailed analysis of the structure of the genome is presented, and the evolution of the genome is inferred by comparison with the chloroplast sequences of other members of the Araucariaceae and the related family Podocarpaceae. Pairwise alignments of whole genome sequences, and the presence of unique pseudogenes, gene duplications and insertions in W. nobilis and Araucariaceae, indicate that the W. nobilis chloroplast genome is most similar to that of its sister taxon Agathis. However, the W. nobilis genome contains an unusually high number of repetitive sequences, and these could be used in future studies to investigate and conserve any remnant genetic diversity in the Wollemi pine.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84936767163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0128126
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0128126
M3 - Article
VL - 10
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 6
M1 - e0128126
ER -