Abstract

Chrysophyllum cainito is a semi-domesticated species widely cultivated in tropical regions, such as the Americas and Southeast Asia. In Yunnan, Guangdong, and Fujian Provinces, China, C. cainito is planted as an edible tropical fruit that was introduced from Southeast Asia. In this study, the chloroplast genome sequence of C. cainito was assembled and characterized using Illumina sequencing. The whole chloroplast genome of C. cainito is 158,841 bp long and consists of four regions: a large single-copy region (LSC, 88,256 bp), two inverted repeat regions (IRs, 25,958 bp), and a small single copy (SSC, 18,669 bp) region. The composition of the four bases in the circular chloroplast genome is 31.20% A, 32.00% T, 18.02% G, and 18.78% C, and the GC content of the entire C. cainito chloroplast genome is 36.8%. A total of 129 genes were annotated in the C. cainito chloroplast genome, of which 84 were protein-coding genes, 37 were transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and eight were ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that C. cainito was most closely related to Pouteria campechiana. This study provides a foundation for further investigation of chloroplast genome evolution and genetic variation within semi-domesticated species.