Complete chloroplast genome sequence of a subtropical tree, Actinodaphne cupularis (Lauraceae)

Actinodaphne cupularis is a multi-purpose tree that grows in central or southwest China and is one of the primary source plants for making Hawk tea. In this study, we firstly assembled and characterized the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of A. cupularis using Illumina pair-end sequencing. The results revealed that the total length of the cp genome was 152,748 bp with 39% of the guanine-cytosine content, including a pair of 20,066 bp reverse repeat regions, a large single-copy region with 93,788 bp, and a small single-copy region with 18,828 bp. One hundred twenty-four genes were identified, including eight rRNA genes, 36 tRNA genes, and 80 protein-coding genes. In addition, the maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree was constructed between the cp genome of A. cupularis and its related species. The results suggested that A. cupularis was more closely related to Actinodaphne obovate and then formed a sister clade with the Machilus genus. This study not only analyzed the cp genome characteristic information of A. cupularis but also provided a specific basis and foundation for future research.