Camellia obtusifolia is a wild relative of the economically important oil crop Camellia oleifera. Here, we sequenced and analyzed the complete chloroplast genome of C. obtusifolia to clarify its phylogenetic position. The cp genome was 156,540 bp in length and exhibited a typical quadripartite structure comprising a LSC (86,254 bp), a SSC (18,400 bp), and two IR (25,943 bp) regions. It contained 134 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes, with a GC content of 37.3%. Comparative analysis revealed a 452-bp deletion in the atpH–atpI intergenic region, which served as a distinguishing feature between C. obtusifolia and C. oleifera. Phylogenetic analysis showed that C. obtusifolia clustered into a clade with Camellia sasanqua, Camellia brevistyla, and Camellia meiocarpa, demonstrating the closest relationship with C. sasanqua (bootstrap = 98%), contradicting previous morphological classifications. This study provided essential genomic resources for future phylogenetic and conservation studies in genus Camellia.
Chen et al. (Sat,) studied this question.