Characterization of the complete plastome sequence of perennial sowthistle, Sonchus arvensis (Asteraceae).

The first complete chloroplast genome sequence of Sonchus arvensis, a herbaceous perennial, and its phylogenetic position relative to a member of the annual weedy and woody perennial species of Sonchus were reported in this study. Here, we assembled the complete plastome sequence of 151,967 base pairs (bp) in length, comprising 84,251 bp of a large single copy (LSC) and 18,184 bp (SSC) of small single copy confined between 24,766 bp of inverted repeats (IR). The genome contained 130 genes, including 87 protein-coding genes, six ribosomal RNA, and 37 transfer RNA genes. The overall GC content was 37.6% (LSC, 35.8%; SSC, 31.5%; IRs, 43.0%). Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that perennial S. arvensis is sister to the clade containing the weedy species of Sonchus.