Phylogeny of the tribe Sophoreae (Fabaceae, Faboideae) and taxonomy of Ammopiptanthus using plastome data

Abstract Background The tribe Sophoreae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae, previous studies relating on the phylogeny of the tribe Sophoreae were mainly limited to a small number of molecular markers, and Ammopiptanthus is a problematic taxonomic genus within the tribe Sophoreae. Methods and results We assembled three plastomes including two A. mongolicus and one A. nanus based genome skimming data. The plastomes of the two species are from 153 812 bp to 153 921 bp, with typical quadripartite structures containing a large single copy, a small single copy, and a pair of inverted repeats. Comparative genomic analyses show that the plastomes of the tribe Sophoreae are relatively conserved. Phylogenetic analyses based on plastomes of the tribe Sophoreae indicate that all the species are divided into three clades, two genera including Thermopsis and Sophora are recovered as non-monophyletic. Multiple individuals of A. mongolicus and A. nanus are intraspecific monophyletic with full support in the phylogenetic tree, confirming that A. nanus should be treated as a distinct species within Ammopiptanthus . Conclusions In this study, we conducted genome skimming of three individuals including two A. mongolicus and one A. nanus . Combined with previously published data, the phylogeny of the tribe Sophoreae was investigated and the taxonomy of Ammopiptanthus was fully resolved by plastome data.