The complete chloroplast genome of the threatened Prunus cerasoides, a rare winter blooming cherry in the Himalayan region

Prunus cerasoides D. Don (Rosaceae), also known as Cerasus cerasoides, is a rare and threatened deciduous tree endemic to the Himalayan region. The species is of great importance horticulturally with its attractive winter blooming flowers. In this study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of P. cerasoides was assembled based on the Illumina reads. The cp genome of P. cerasoides was 157,685 bp in length and contained a pair of inverted repeat (IR, 26,416 bp) regions, which were separated by the small single copy (SSC, 19,061 bp) and the large single copy (LSC, 85,792 bp) regions. It encoded 129 genes including 83 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA ribosomal genes. The overall AT content of P. cerasoides cp genome is 63.3%. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that P. cerasoides is sister to the other cherries. This result will be useful for the future studies of the economically important cherry lineage.