The complete chloroplast genome of Lonicera similis Hemsl. and its phylogenetic analysis

Lonicera similis Hemsl. belongs to the Caprifoliaceae family and used as a substitute for ‘jin yin hua’. Recent years, it demonstrates great economic value because of its rich chemical composition. However, the phylogenetic relationship between L. similis and other family members remains unclear. In this paper, we assembled the cp genome of L. similis using the high-throughput Illumina pair-end sequencing data. The circular cp genome was 155,207 bp in size, including a large single-copy (LSC) region of 88994 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,633 bp, which were separated by two inverted repeat (IR) regions (23,790 bp each). A total of 121 genes were predicted, including eight ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), 36 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and 77 protein-coding genes (PCGs). In addition, the result of phylogenetic analysis indicated that L. similis formed a close relationship from another congeneric species (Lonicera confusa). This study provides helpful information for future genetic study of L. similis.