The complete chloroplast genome of Cucumis melo L. ‘Shengkaihua’ (Cucurbitaceae) and its phylogenetic implication

Abstract

The genus Cucumis contains 52 species, including two economically significant crops, cucumber, and melon, as well as some important landraces. Cucumis melo L. ‘Shengkaihua’ is a widely cultivated landraces in China. It has high sugar content, early maturity, and strong genetic growth potential. Cucumis melo L. ‘Shengkaihua’ provides a valuable gene pool for crop improvement of Cucumis crops. In this study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of C. melo L. ‘Shengkaihua’ was determined using next-generation sequencing. The entire cp genome was determined to be 156,017 bp in length. It contained large single-copy (LSC) and small single-copy (SSC) regions of 86,335 and 18,088 bp, respectively, which were separated by a pair of 25,797 bp inverted repeat (IR) regions. The genome contained 133 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the genome is 36.9%. A phylogenetic tree reconstructed by 24 chloroplast genomes reveals that C. melo L. ‘Shengkaihua’ is most related to Cucumis melo var. inodorus.