The complete chloroplast genome of the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) and an adaptive evolutionary analysis of the ycf2 gene

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is widely cultivated in Northwest China which has become an emerging economic crop with rapid development. Because of its elevated inulin content and high resistance, it is widely used in functional food, inulin processing, feed, and ecological management. In this study, Illumina sequencing technology was utilized to assemble and annotate the complete chloroplast genome sequences of Jerusalem artichoke. The total length was 151,431 bp, including four conserved regions: A pair of reverse repeat regions (IRa 24,568 bp and IRb 24,603 bp), a large single-copy region (LSC, 83,981 bp), and a small single-copy region (SSC, 18,279 bp). The genome had a total of 115 genes, with 19 present in the reverse direction in the IR region. 36 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in the coding and non-coding regions, most of which were biased towards A/T bases. 32 SSRs were distributed in the non-coding regions. Comparative analysis of the chloroplast genome sequence of Jerusalem artichoke and other species of the composite family revealed the chloroplast genome sequences of plants of the composite family to be highly conserved. Differences were observed in 24 gene loci in the coding region, with the degree of differentiation of the ycf2 gene being the most obvious. Phylogenetic analysis showed Helianthus petiolaris subsp. fallax had the closest relationship with Jerusalem artichoke, both members of the Helianthus genus. Selective locus detection of the ycf2 gene in eight species of the composite family was performed to explore adaptive evolution traits of the ycf2 gene in Jerusalem artichoke. The results show that there are significant and extremely significant positive selection sites at the 1239N and 1518R loci, respectively, indicating that the ycf2 gene has been subject to adaptive evolution and has the potential to be used as a phylogenetic reconstruction locus in the composite family. Insights from our assessment of the complete chloroplast genome sequences of Jerusalem artichoke will aid in the in-depth study of the evolutionary relationship of the composite family, and provide significant sequencing information for the genetic improvement of Jerusalem artichoke.