Complete chloroplast genome and phylogenetic analysis of Acer leipoense (Sapindaceae), a rare plant from Southwest China

Abstract

Acer leipoense is a rare and endangered species of the Sapindaceae with a very restricted distribution in Sichuan, China. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of A. leipoense was characterized by de novo assembly using high-throughput sequencing. The chloroplast genome was 155,702 bp in length; it contained a large single copy region (85,890 bp) and a small single copy region (18,100 bp), which were separated by a pair of 25,856-bp inverted repeat regions. A total of 128 genes were predicted, including 83 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. A phylogenetic analysis of 23 chloroplast genome sequences from the genus Acer revealed that A. leipoense was closely related to A. yangbiense.