Abstract
BACKGROUND: Eriobotrya seguinii (Lév.) Cardot ex Guillaumin (Rosaceae, Maleae) is native to China and inhabits various altitudes within the subtropical biome of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The complexity of the plant mitogenome has impeded a systematic description of this species, leading to a limited understanding of its evolutionary position. METHODS: In this study, we constructed, annotated, characterized, and compared the complete E. seguinii mitogenome with previously reported Eriobotrya japonica. RESULTS: The E. seguinii mitogenome exhibited a typical circular architecture, spanning 372,899 bp in length, with a GC content of 46%, making it the smallest and highest GC content of any known Eriobotrya species. It encodes 71 unique genes, comprising 47 protein-coding genes, 20 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 4 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The genome contains rich repetitive sequences, with mononucleotides, A/T bias, and forward and palindromic repeats being the most prevalent. The predominant codons were GCU (Ala) and UAU (Tyr), with frequencies of 1.54 and 1.53, respectively. Thirteen genes (atp9, atp6, atp1, rps14, sdh4, sdh3, rps12, rnaseH, nad1, nad6, nad7, rpl16, and mttB) demonstrated high Pi values, ranging from 0.84 to 1. The evolutionary lineage of E. seguinii was explored using mitogenome data from 19 genera within the Rosaceae family, revealing that Eriobotrya species are monophyletic and closely related to E. japonica (MN481990). CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the mitogenome characteristics of E. seguinii enhances our understanding of its genesis and classification based on mitochondrial genome data. This study provides additional evidence for future research on the evolutionary relationships among species in the Rosaceae family.