The study of citrus plant evolution based on repetitive genomic elements, chloroplast genome, and 35S rDNA

In our study, we analyzed the repeatomes of 12 Citrus plants, including 4 ancestral species and 8 the most widespread cultivated species. We detected an atypically high content of “Athila” and “Sire” LTR retrotransposons for angiosperms. For these plants, phylogenetic trees were constructed based on the nuclear repeatome, plastome, and 35S rDNA cistron, using sequencing data from open databases and, for the first time, sequencing data from our collection. The analysis demonstrated that the plastome carries a strong phylogenetic signal, which is most consistent with the updated classification of the Citrus genus, showing a distinct pattern compared to the other two phylogenetic trees.