The complete plastid genome of carnivorous pitcher plant Cephalotus follicularis

Abstract

Cephalotus follicularis is a carnivorous plant native to southwest Australia that belongs to the monospecific family Cephalotaceae. It forms both carnivorous pitcher leaves and non-carnivorous flat leaves, the pitcher leave makes it able to attract, catch, and digest their preys, usually insects, and assimilate nutrients for the growth. Previous studies of the plastid genome in carnivorous plants show various evolutionary changes. In this study, we report the complete plastid genome of C. follicularis, the circular plastid genome possesses a total length 142,706 bp with the typical quadripartite structure of angiosperms, contains 100 genes, the whole set of ndh-gene family in C. follicularis have been truncated or pseudogenized. Phylogenetic analyses based on plastid coding genes showed that C. follicularis and Averrhoa carambola formed the clade corresponding to Oxalidales. The complete plastome sequence of C. follicularis will provide a useful resource for the evolutionary biology study of carnivorous plants as well as for the phylogenetic studies in Oxalidales.