Abstract
Chloroplast (cp) genomes of Lilium amabile, L. callosum, L. lancifolium, and L. philadelphicum were fully sequenced. Using these four novel cp genome sequences and five other previously sequenced cp genomes, features of the cp genomes were characterized in detail among species in the genus Lilium and other related genera in the order Liliales. The lengths and nucleotide composition showed little variation. No structural variation was found among the cp genomes in Liliales. Gene contents were conserved among four newly sequenced cp genome in Lilium species, the only differences being in two pseudogenes. We identified 112 genes in 13 functional categories, 18 of which carried introns that were conserved among the species in Liliales. There were 16-21 SSR loci (>12 bp, >3 repeats) in the cp genomes in Lilium and the genomic locations of these loci were highly variable among the species. Average mutations were 15 SNPs per 1kb and 5 indels per 1kb, respectively, in the cp genomes of the newly sequenced four Lilium species. Phylogenetic classifications revealed some discrepancies between trees based on the cp genomes and previous classifications based on the morphology and geographic distributions.