The complete chloroplast genome of ornamental plant Ruellia simplex C.Wright (Acanthaceae)

Ruellia simplex C.Wright is a perennial plant of the Acanthaceae, which has significant ornamental value. Because of its strong adaptability, it is widely planted in Chinese rural areas. Based on sequencing data from Illumina, the first complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Ruellia simplex C.Wright is reported in this paper. This cp genome was 143,016bp in length, including a large single-copy region (LSC) of 91,857bp, a small single-copy (SSC) of 17,591bp and two inverted repeat regions (IRs) of 16,784bp. It contained 128 genes, 35 transfer RNA genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes, with an overall GC content of 38.41%. Additionally, the phylogenetic analysis showed that Ruellia simplex is closely related to Strobilanthes cusia (NC_037485), Strobilanthes bantonensis (MT576695) and Echinacanthus attenuatus (NC_039762). The results of this study provide valuable information for the continued study of its species evolution, genetic engineering and germplasm resource utilization.