Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of the golden crane butterfly, Euonymus schensianus (Celastraceae)

The golden crane butterfly, Euonymus schensianus, is an important forest tree species with dramatically fragmented and declined populations. Here we characterized the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of this plant using Illumina pair-end sequencing data. The E. schensianus cp genome was 157,702 bp in length, containing a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 26,574 bp which separated a large single copy region (LSC) of 86,026 bp and a small single copy region (SSC) of 18,528 bp. The genome contained 131 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA genes, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes. Most of genes occurred as single-copy in the LSC or SSC, while 18 gene species had two copies in the IRs. The GC content of E. schensianus cp genome, LSC, SSC and IR regions were 37.2, 35.0, 31.8 and 42.5%, respectively. Further, phylogenomic analysis strongly supported the close relationship of E. schensianus and E. japonicus in Celastrales.