The complete chloroplast genome of Vitex parviflora A.Juss. (Lamiaceae) and its comparison with Vitex species

ABSTRACT Vitex parviflora A.Juss. is a highly valuable construction timber and ornamental landscape species native in the islands of the Philippines and Timor. Here, we assembled and characterized the complete chloroplast genome of V. parviflora which yielded a circularized genome 154,024 bp long, and represented by a quadripartite structure consisting of long single-copy (84,848 bp), short single-copy (17,852 bp), and two inverted repeat (IR) regions (25,662 bp). In comparison with the other published Vitex plastome sequences, the V. parviflora genome has the smallest number of annotated genes comprising 86 protein-coding, 36 tRNA, and 8 rRNA genes. Notable are the two tRNA genes having three and four copies, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis is supported with 100% bootstrap value which resulted to V. parviflora grouping closer with V. yunnanensis, a species endemic to China, than with V. quinata which it is difficult to discriminate from using morphological markers. Differences in IR regions and the presence of pseudogenes varied considerably, suggesting that V. parviflora is clearly different from the closely related taxa from the phylogram. These findings will provide a good basis for chloroplast genome assembly of other Vitex species and be useful for resolving problematic taxonomic positions within the genera, as well as provide additional evidence for species delimitation.