The complete chloroplast genome of Saussurea medusa maxim. (Asteraceae), an alpine Tibetan herb

Abstract

Saussurea medusa is an important traditional Tibetan medicinal plant in China. In this study, we assembled the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of S. medusa. The complete S. medusa chloroplast genome is a circular molecular structure of 152,257 bp in length with coding GC 37.93%, consisting of two inverted repeats (25,204 bp) separated by a large single-copy region (83,334 bp) and a small single-copy region (18,515 bp). The complete chloroplast genome of S. medusa contained 130 genes, including 87 protein-coding genes, 35 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis shows that S. medusa is most closely related to Saussurea inversa and Saussurea pseudoleucoma. The complete chloroplast genome sequence of S. medusa facilitates the phylogenetic studies of Asteraceae.

Keywords

• saussurea medusa
• chloroplast genome
• phylogenetic analysis