Comparative analysis of the plastidial genome in Coffea species from Madagascar

• Grant number: 18/17327-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Plant Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Douglas Silva Domingues
• Grantee: Daniel Rodrigo Dovigo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Chloroplasts are organelles present in plant cells responsible for important biochemical processes such as photosynthesis and regulation of metabolic pathways. These organelles have their own highly conserved genome, organized in a circular way and divided into four regions - two inverted repeats regions (IR), a large single copy region (LSC) and a small single copy region (SSC) - with approximate size between 120kb to 180kb. Due to its high level of conservation, the chloroplast genome has been used as a tool to compare genomes and to obtain evolutionary data of plant species. The present project intends to assemble, annotate and compare the genome of three wild species of the genus Coffea: C. perrieri, C. sakarahae and C. bonnieri, native from the Island of Madagascar. Analysis of the structure of the plastome combined with phylogenomic studies in these species and other representatives of the Lamiaceae, Rubiaceae and Solanaceae families could certainly help in understanding the evolutionary history of Coffea.