Characterization of the Complete Chloroplast Genome of Apple (Malus × domestica,Rosaceae)*

Apple (Malus × domestica) is one of the most important temperate fruits. To better understand the molecular basis of this species, we characterized the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence downloaded from Genome Database for Rosaceae. The cp genome of apple is a circular molecule of 160068bp in length with a typical quadripartite structure of two inverted repeats (IRs) of 26352bp, separated by a small single copy region of 19180bp (SSC) and a large single copy region (LSC) of 88184bp. A total of 135 predicted genes (115 unique genes, and another 20 genes were duplicated in the IR) were identified, including 81 protein coding genes, four rRNA genes and 30 tRNA genes. Three genes of ycf15, ycf68 and infA contain several internal stop codons, which were interpreted as pseudogenes. The genome structure, gene order, GC content and codon usage of apple are similar to the typical angiosperm cp genomes. Thirty repeat regions (≥30bp) were detected, twenty one of which are tandem, six are forward and three are inverted repeats. Two hundred thirty seven simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci were revealed and most of them are composed of A or T, contributing to a distinct bias in base composition. Additionally, average 10000bp non coding region contains 24 SSR sites, while protein coding region contains five SSR sites, indicating an uneven distribution of SSRs. The complete cp genome sequence of apple reported in this paper will facilitate the future studies of its population genetics, phylogenetics and chloroplast genetic engineering.