Comparative transcriptomics of Silene conica populations. Silene

Plants in the genus Silene exhibit a wide range of variation in the size and rate of organelle genome evolution. To investigate evolutionary dynamics in the mitochondrial, chloroplast, and nuclear genomes of this genus, we sequenced transcriptomes from 19 populations of Silene conica, a species with extremely fast rates of mtDNA evolution and one of the largest mitochondrial genomes in plants. We also examined a specimen that is more distantly related to these populations and may represent Silene subconica, or a hybrid between conica/subconica. Finally, we also sequence a single accession of Silene macrodonta, a closely related species that serves as an outgroup.