The complete chloroplast genome of Erodium cicutarium (Linnaeus) l’ Héritier ex Aiton 1789 (Geraniaceae): genome characterization and phylogenetic consideration

Abstract

Erodium cicutarium is an annual herbaceous plant valued for its applications in traditional medicine. However, the chloroplast genome of E. cicutarium has yet to be reported. In this study, we assembled chloroplast genomes of Erodium cicutarium using Illumina sequencing reads. The chloroplast genome was 114,652 bp long, harbored 111 complete genes, and its overall GC content was 39.1%. In Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) trees, the 13 Erodium species divided into three main clades, with E. cicutarium and E. carvifolium forming a monophyletic group, suggesting a close relationship between the two species. The E. cicutarium cp genome presented in this study lays a good foundation for the Erodium.

Keywords

• Erodium cicutarium
• Geraniaceae
• chloroplast genome
• inverted repeat regions loss
• phylogenetic analysis