Complete plastome sequence of Clinacanthus nutans (Acanthaceae): a medicinal species in Southern China

Abstract Clinacanthus nutans (Burm.f.) Lindau. is a medicinal species occurring in southern Guangdong province, Guangxi province, Hainan province and Yunnan province of China, which has been widely used in the medical field. However, its complete plastome information and systematic position are still unknown. In order to enhance the development of its medicinal value, we report and characterize the complete plastid genome sequence of C. nutans in an effort to provide genomic resources useful to promoting its medicinal value and systematic research. The complete plastome is 151,669 bp in length and contains the typical structure and gene content of angiosperm plastome, including two Inverted Repeat (IR) regions of 25,366 bp, a Large Single-Copy (LSC) region of 83,502 bp and a Small Single-Copy (SSC) region of 17,435 bp. The plastome contains 113 genes, consisting of 80 unique protein-coding genes, 29 unique tRNA gene and four unique rRNA genes (5S rRNA, 4.5S rRNA, 23S rRNA and 16S rRNA). The overall A/T content in the plastome of C. nutans is 61.60%. The complete plastome sequence of C. nutans will provide a useful resource for the conservation genetics of this species as well as for the phylogenetic studies of Acanthaceae.