The complete chloroplast genome of vulnerable Aesculus wangii (Sapindaceae), a narrowly endemic tree in Yunnan, China

In this study, we assembled the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Aesculus wangii Hu (Sapindaceae), a rare and vulnerable deciduous tree native to Southeast Yunnan of China. The cp genome of A. wangii was 155,871 bp in length and contained a pair of inverted repeat (IR, 26,390 bp) regions, which were separated by the small single copy (SSC, 18,209 bp) and the large single copy (LSC, 84,882 bp) regions. The cp genome encoded 135 genes including 84 protein-coding genes, 40 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA ribosomal genes. The overall AT content of A. wangii cp genome is 62.0%. The maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis revealed that A. wangii is sister to maples of tribe Acereae and the Acereae-Aesculus clade is sister to all other sampled Sapindaceae. The cp genome of A. wangii will be useful for future studies on the conservation, taxonomy, and phylogeny of the genus Aesculus.