Plastid phylogenomics of the cool-season grass subfamily: Clarification of relationships among early-diverging tribes

Whole plastid genomes (plastomes) are being sequenced rapidly from across the green plant tree of life, and phylogenetic analyses of these are increasing resolution and support for relationships that were unresolved in earlier studies. The cool-season grass subfamily Pooideae includes important temperate cereals, turf grasses and forage species, yet some aspects of deep phylogeny in the lineage are unresolved. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Saarela et al. newly sequenced 25 Pooideae plastomes, and conducted phylogenomic analyses of these and 20 existing plastomes from the subfamily. Most aspects of deep relationship in Pooideae were maximally supported in their analyses, including those among early-diverging tribes. Complete plastome data also provided increased nodal support compared to protein coding data alone at nodes that were not maximally supported.