Abstract
Luffa acutangula and Luffa aegyptiaca are domesticated plants in the family Cucurbitaceae. They are mainly cultivated in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia. The chloroplast genomes of many Cucurbitaceae species were sequenced to examine gene content and evolution. However, the chloroplast genome sequences of L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca have not been reported. We report the first complete sequences of L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca chloroplast genomes obtained from Pacific Biosciences sequencing and use them to infer evolutionary relationships. The chloroplast genomes of L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca are 157,202 and 157,275 bp, respectively. Both genomes possessed the typical quadripartite structure and contained 131 genes, including 87 coding genes, 36 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. We identified simple sequence repeats (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from both chloroplast genomes. Polycistronic mRNA was examined in L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca using RNA sequences from Isoform sequencing to identify co-transcribed genes. IR size and locations were compared to other species and found to be relatively unchanged. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the close relationship between L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca in the Cucurbitaceae lineage and showed separation of the Luffa monophyletic clade from other species in the subtribe Sicyocae. The results obtained from this study can be useful for studying the evolution of Cucurbitaceae plants.