Heewon JiP, Young-Kee Kim, and Jun-Ho Song

Department of Biology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea

The genus Angelica L. (Apiaceae) comprises approximately 110 economically valuable species. Despite numerous morphological and phylogenetic studies, the taxonomic classification of Angelica species remains complex and controversial. As a result, chloroplast genome sequences have been extensively employed to elucidate these relationships. In this study, the complete chloroplast genomes of four Angelica species were newly sequenced. The chloroplast genomes sizes ranged from 146,989 to 147,416 bp, with a consistent GC content of 37.8%. All genomes exhibited the typical quadripartite structure, comprising a pair of inverted repeats (IRs; 17811―18,166 bp) separated by a large single-copy region (LSC; 93,189―93,600 bp) and a small single-copy region (SSC; 17,743―17,924 bp). Each chloroplast genome contained 113 unique genes, including 79 protein-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and four ribosomal RNA genes. Extensive IR expansion and contraction events were observed among the Angelica species. Based on these structural variations, the Angelica chloroplast genomes were categorized into six distinct types. Genetic divergence analysis revealed that the psbM―psbD region exhibited the highest nucleotide diversity (π = 0.05233). Phylogenetic reconstruction based on complete chloroplast genomes resolved Angelica as paraphyletic, forming three distinct clades. These results provide valuable genomic resources and offer new insights into the evolutionary history and phylogenetic relationships of Angelica and the broader Apiaceae family.

* This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (RS-2023-00208589).