The complete chloroplast genome of purple longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour., Sapindaceae)

Purple longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) is a new longan cultivar that arose in Soc Trang province, Vietnam. Although the economic value of purple longan has been revealed, genomic data have not been explored. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of purple longan was sequenced and characterized, which was 160,763 bp in length. The genome had a quadripartite structure, including a large single copy (85,628 bp), a small single copy (18,247 bp), and two inverted repeat (28,444 bp) regions. This genome contained 79 protein-coding genes, 30 transfer RNAs, and four ribosomal RNAs, of which, 16 genes were duplicated in inverted repeat regions. Comparative genomic analysis revealed 11 highly variable regions (including matK-trnK_UUU, psbK-trnG_UCC, atpH-atpI, psbZ-rps14, pafI-trnL_UAA, psbJ-petG, clpP, rpl36-rpl14, rpl32-ccsA, rps15-ycf1, and ycf1). Additionally, 100 insertion and deletion sites were identified in the purple longan chloroplast genome. This study provided the first report on the complete chloroplast genome of purple longan, which is useful for further studies on cultivar identification, germplasm conservation, and plant breeding in the Dimocarpus genus and Sapindaceae family.