Another first for the Apiaceae: evidence for mitochondrial DNA transfer into the plastid genome

The complete plastid genome (plastome) sequences of Anthriscus cerefolium, Crithmum maritimum, Hydrocotyle verticillata, Petroselinum crispum, and Tiedemannia filiformis subsp. greenmanii have recently been determined. With the exceptions of Crithmum and Petroselinum, which each demonstrate major shifts of their LSC-IRB (JLB) and LSC-IRA (JLA) junctions, all plastomes are typical of most other non-monocot angiosperm plastid DNAs in their structure, organization, and gene content. Crithmum and Petroselinum also incorporate novel DNA in the LSC region adjacent to Jsimilarity to any other region of their plastid genomes and BLAST searches of the Petroselinum insert resulted in multiple significant hits to angiosperm mitochondrial genome sequences. We highlight results of this recent work on the comparative analysis of whole plastid genomes from the Apiales, present the circular plastome gene map of Petroselinum crispum (parsley), review the literature indicating other instances of mitochondrial DNA transfer into Apiaceae plastomes as evidenced by complete mitochondrial DNA sequencing of Daucus carota, and describe our ongoing research on the elucidation of mechanisms creating the many large IR junction shifts characteristic of the family