Comparative Chloroplast Genome Analysis of Medicinally Important Veratrum (Melanthiaceae) in China: Insights into Genomic Characterization and Phylogenetic Relationships Ying-min Zhang Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Li-jun Han Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Ying-Ying Liu Yunnan provincial food and drug evaluation and inspection center Cong-wei Yang Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Xing Tian Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Zi-gang Qian Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Guodong Li (
[email protected] ) Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9108-5454 Research Keywords: Veratrum, Chloroplast genome, Sequences variations, Medicine-herb, Phylogeny Posted Date: December 7th, 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-117897/v1 License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License Page 1/15 Abstract Background: Veratrum is a genus of perennial herbs that are widely used as traditional Chinese medicine for emetic, resolving blood stasis and relieve pain. However, the species classication and the phylogenetic relationship of the genus Veratrum have long been controversial due to the complexity of morphological variations. Knowledge on the infrageneric relationships of the genus Veratrum can be obtained from their chloroplast genome sequences and increase the taxonomic and phylogenetic resolution. Methods: Total DNA was extracted from ten species of Veratrum and subjected to next-generation sequencing. The cp genome was assembled by NOVOPlasty. Genome annotation was conducted using the online tool DOGMA and subsequently corrected by Geneious Prime. Then, genomic characterization of the Veratrum plastome and genome comparison with closely related species was analyzed by corresponding software.