Comparison of Chloroplast Genomes of English Yew (Taxus baccata L.) and Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergii Parl.)

Previous studies based on of allozyme polymorphisms in Taxus baccata (English yew) have been concerned mainly with inheritance analysis and genetic differentiation within and among yew stands. Our primary goal was to find chloroplast primer restriction enzyme combinations which reveal genetic polymorphisms in the chloroplast genome of samples from Central Europe but no polymorphisms were detected. However, we were able to map location of successful primer combinations on the published chloroplast genome of Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) and to compare the primer positions with those of two other completely sequenced conifer genomes. Yew sequences in GenBank were also placed onto our map. As we were able to amplify a number of hitherto unexplored spacers between genes, the map of chloroplast structure shows that gene order is likely to be identical between Taxus and Pinus over large parts of the chloroplast.