The complete chloroplast genome of an aromatic Chinese pepper (Zanthoxylum simulans)

The Chinese pepper (Zanthoxylum simulans) is a flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, native to eastern China and Taiwan. Like many other members of the Rutaceae, it is an economically important aromatic crop known for its volatile oil and nutrition. We determined the complete chloroplast genome sequences for Z. simulans using IIumina sequencing. The Z. simulans chloroplast has a total length of 158,461 bp; it consists of a large single copy (LSC) region of 85,568 bp, a small single copy region (SSC) length of 17,603 bp, and an inverted region (IR) of 27,645 bp. The genome encodes 132 annotated genes, including 87 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA, and 8 rRNA. The overall GC content of the Z. simulans chloroplast genome was 38.5%. A phylogenomic analysis revealed that Z. simulans are clustered with Z. bungeanum within the genus Zanthoxylum.