Hye Been Kim1P, Ju Eun Jang1, Dong Chan Son1, Eun Su Kang1

1Division of Forest Biodiversity Research, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon, Korea

Solanum carolinense L., belonging to the family Solanaceae, is a perennial herb or subshrub. S. carolinense has become naturalized in Korea as an invasive species, forming a stable population that has grown naturally with native plants for more than 10 years. However, its chloroplast genome structure and complete sequence have not yet been reported. Therefore, we determined the complete chloroplast genome sequence of S. carolinense using genome sequencing, assembly, and annotation. The analysis revealed that the plastome exhibited the typical quadripartite structure of most angiosperms, comprising a large single-copy (LSC) region, a small single-copy (SSC) region, and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs). The total length of the chloroplast genome was 155,315 bp with a GC content of 37.6%. The quadripartite structure of the chloroplast genome consisted of an LSC region of 86,160 bp, an SSC region of 18,459 bp, and IRs of 25,348 bp each. It contained 129 genes, including 84 coding sequences (CDSs), 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes, and one pseudogene. Maximum likelihood (ML) analysis was conducted using 78 CDSs extracted from the chloroplast genomes of 40 species. The analysis revealed that S. carolinense is closely related to S. aridum Morong and S. hieronymi Kuntze. These results provide a molecular basis for phylogenetic and evolutionary studies of the genus Solanum and present a fundamental chloroplast genomic resource for future invasion biology research.