The complete chloroplast genome of a medicinal plant, Wikstroemia chamaedaphne (Thymelaeaceae)

Abstract

The first complete chloroplast genome of Wikstroemia chamaedaphne, a poisonous shrub with important medicinal value, is reported in this study. The plastome is a quadripartite circular shape with 173,042 bp in length. It consists of a large single-copy (LSC) region of 86,330 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 2868 bp, separated by two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 41,922 bp each. The chloroplast genome contains 137 genes, including 91 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The GC content values in the whole cp genome, LSC region, SSC region, and IR region are 36.6%, 34.6%, 28.3%, and 38.9%, respectively. The corresponding numbers of mono-, di-, tri-, tetra- and penta-nucleotides SSRs were 73, 13, 9, 13, and 1. Phylogenetic study revealed that W. chamaedaphne and W. indica formed a monophyletic branch and having a close relationship with Stellera chamaejasme.