Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Salix chienii W.C. Cheng (Salicaceae) from Southern China.

Salix chienii W.C. Cheng (Salicaceae) is a dioecious small tree with high economic and medicinal value. In this study, we reported the complete chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) of S. chienii by employing HiSeq sequencing and de novo assembly. The chloroplast genome of S. chienii is 155,672 bp in length, with a 36.60% GC content; it contains one large single copy (LSC), one small single copy (SSC) and two inverted repeat (IR) regions with lengths of 84,494, 16,330, and 27,424 bp, respectively. A total of 132 genes were predicted, including 85 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes and 2 pseudogenes. A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree showed that S. chienii is closely related to S. wilsonii and S. triandra.