Comparative plastomes of species from Phrymaceae and Mazaceae: insights into adaptive evolution, codon usage bias, and phylogenetic relationships

Abstract

The phylogeny of the species from Phrymaceae and Mazaceae has undergone many adjustments and changes in recent years. Moreover, there is little plastome information on the Phrymaceae. In this study, we compared the plastomes of six species from the Phrymaceae and 10 species from the Mazaceae. The gene order, contents, and orientation of the 16 plastomes were found to be highly similar. A total of 13 highly variable regions were identified among the 16 species. An accelerated rate of substitution was found in the protein-coding genes, particularly cemA and matK. The combination of effective number of codons, parity rule 2, and neutrality plots revealed that the codon usage bias is affected by mutation and selection. The phylogenetic analysis strongly supported {Mazaceae [(Phrymaceae + Wightiaceae) + (Paulowniaceae + Orobanchaceae)]} relationships in the Lamiales. Our findings can provide useful information to analyze the phylogeny and molecular evolution within the Phrymaceae and Mazaceae.