Characterization of the complete Salix viminalis var. gmelinii Turcz 1854 chloroplast genome from the northeast of China

The Salix viminalis var. gmelinii Turcz 1854 is a variant of the Salix genus, from the Salicaceae family, and possesses an extremely high economic value. In this study the complete chloroplast genome of the woody plant S. viminalis var. gmelinii was characterized for the first time using a high-throughput approach in conjunction with de novo assembly technology. The S.viminalis var. gmelinii chloroplast genome is 155,405 base pairs (bp) in length and contains 36.71% GC content. It incorporates a large single-copy region (LSC, 84,287bp) alongside one small-copy region (SSC, 16,198bp), and two inverted repeat regions (IRA and IRB, 27,460bp). Moreover, this chloroplast genome encodes 128 genes, which comprises 83 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and eight ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis revealed that S.viminalis var. gmelinii is closely related to S. cupularis and S.gordejevii.