Gyu-Eun Kim1P, Chae-Eun Lim2, Seung-Chul Kim1

1Department of Biological Sciences, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Korea; 2National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon 22689, Korea

Species of Anemone (Ranunculaceae) are perennial herbs of enormous horticultural and medicinal importance, yet species relationships within the genus are poorly known. To clarify species relationships among Korean members of tribe Anemoneae, we conducted phylogenomic analyses based on complete plastome sequences. We assembled complete chloroplast genomes from 17 accessions representing eight Korean species, including three species of Anemonastrum and five species of Anemone, and reconstructed a maximum likelihood plastome phylogeny to infer species relationships. The plastome based phylogeny recovered well-defined clades corresponding to Anemonastrum (x=7) and Anemone (x=8), revealing robust and well-resolved species relationships within each lineage. In the x=7 lineage, monophyletic A. flaccidum was sister to the clade containing the A. rossii – A. baicalense group and A. koraiensis. In the x=8 lineage, A. raddeana was found to be monophyletic and sister to the clade that includes the non-monophyletic species A. amurensis, A. reflexa, and A. pendulisapala. Two independent origins were suggested by the plastome data if A. pendulisepala is indeed of hybrid origin. Overall, our results demonstrated important utility and value of chloroplast genomes among Korean Anemone species. The currently ongoing phylogenomic analysis based on nuclear genomes will shed additional light into elucidating the evolution of major lineages, including the purported hybrid origin of A. pendulisepala, in Korean Peninsula.