Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Ardisia gigantifolia (Myrsinaceae), a vulnerable medicinal plant

Ardisia gigantifolia (Myrsinaceae) is a perennial shrub and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. It is well known for its medicinal values and has the potential for development of novel phytopharmaceuticals. Here, we first report and characterize its complete chloroplast genome based on Illumina paired-end sequencing data. The complete plastid genome was 156,216 bp, which contained inverted repeats (IR) of 26,047 bp separated by a large single-copy (LSC) and a small single-copy (SSC) regions of 85,725 bp and 18,397 bp, respectively. The cpDNA contains 134 genes, comprising 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes, and 1 processed pseudogene. The overall GC content of the plastome is 37.3%. The phylogenetic analysis of 17 selected chloroplast genomes demonstrated that A. gigantifolia is closely related to the congeneric A. polysticta.