Characterization of the complete plastid genome sequence of eleutherococcus brachypus (araliaceae), an endangered shrub in China

Abstract

Eleutherococcus brachypus: (Harms) Nakai (Araliaceae) is an endangered shrub that it is endemic to western China. In this study, we characterized the complete nucleotide sequence of the chloroplast (cp) genome in E. brachypus. The total length of the cp genome was 156,981 bp, including a large single copy (LSC) region of 86,921 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,184 bp, and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) comprising 25,938 bp. The cp genome of E. brachypus contained 114 genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. In total, 15 genes comprising tRNA-Lys (UUU), tRNA-Gly (UCC), tRNA-Leu (UAA), tRNA-Val (UAC), tRNA-Ile (GAU), tRNA-Ala (UGC), rps16, atpF, rpoC1, petB, petD, rps16, rpl2, ndhB, and ndhA contained a single intron, and three genes contained two introns, i.e., ycf3, clpP, and rps12. The GC contents of the whole cp genome, LSC region, SSC region, and IR region were 38.0, 36.2, 32.0, and 43.0% respectively, which are similar to those in other Araliaceae plants. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that E. brachypus has a close relationship with congeneric E. gracilistylus.