The complete chloroplast genome of Hemiboea pterocaulis (Gesneriaceae) exclusively distributed in Guilin, Guangxi, China

AbstractHemiboea pterocaulis is a unique species only found in Guilin, Guangxi, China. In this study, we sequenced and assembled the complete chloroplast genome of H. pterocaulis and revealed its phylogenetic relationship with other Hemiboea species. The chloroplast genome sequence of H. pterocaulis is 153,159 bp in length and comprises a large single-copy (LSC) region of 84,178 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,087 bp, and a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions, each with a length of 25,447 bp. It has a total GC content of 37.6% and encodes 132 genes, including 87 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. The phylogenetic relationships based on the complete chloroplast genome sequences of Hemiboea taxa indicate that H. pterocaulis is most closely related to H. suiyangensis, indicating that H. pterocaulis is an independent species and is separated from the H. subcapitata complex. These results provide valuable insights into the phylogeny, species divergence, and delimitation of the Hemiboea genus.