Abstract

Rhodiola kirilowii is a precious Tibetan drug and an extremely endangered plant. In recent years, the number of individuals of R. kirilowii has decreased sharply. Here, we determined and analyzed the complete chloroplast genome of R. kirilowii. The cpDNA was 150,905 bp in length, containing a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,864 bp each separated by a large and small single copy (LSC and SSC) regions of 82,131 bp and 17,046 bp, respectively. The genome contained 84 protein-coding genes, 8 rRNA genes, and 36 tRNA genes. The overall GC content of the chloroplast genome was 37.8%, whereas the corresponding values of the LSC, SSC, and IR regions were 35.8, 31.7 and 42.9%, respectively. A maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that Rhodiola sacra and Rhodiola crenulata were clustered into one clade with strong support values, indicating their closer relationship.