The whole chloroplast genome in Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) is a vegetable crop with health benefits. Despite its medicinal properties have attracted much attention from scientists, the mechanisms of phylotaxonomy, evolution and photosynthesis remain unclear. This study was carried out to determine the entire cp genome sequences from three different varieties in okra through Illumina Hiseq technology. The results revealed that a total of 132 genes were identified in each cp, including 88 protein-coding genes, 36 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. Of them, there were 15 intron-containing genes, including 5 tRNA genes and 10 protein-coding genes, almost all of which have a single intron except for ycf3 and rps12. Furthermore, in total, 72 SSRs were identified in each cp genome. It is notable that the three cp genomes have exhibited high sequence similarity. Finally, phylogenomic analysis uncovered that Abelmoschus species were well supported as monophyletic, which is close to Talipariti hamabo species. Our findings provide significant information for identifying species, exploring the origin and evolution of okra.