The complete plastid genome of marula (Sclerocarya birrea)

Abstract

Marula, Sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich.) Hochst. subsp. Caffra (Sond.) Kokwaro, is an indigenous fruit tree species of southern Africa with considerable socioeconomic importance. The species belongs to the Anacardiaceae family and Sapindales. Here we sequenced and assembled the complete plastid genome of marula. The marula plastome is 162,517 bp in length and contains a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,790 bp each, separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region of 89,874 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 19,063 bp. It encodes 78 protein-coding genes, 28 tRNA genes, and four rRNAs. We performed Maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis based on 80 plastid genes from 53 Sapindales species, and the result supported the recent treatment of Sapindales and the placement of marula in Anacardiaceae.