Complete plastome sequence of Ilex asprella (Hooker and Arnott) Champion ex Bentham (Aquifoliaceae), a Chinese folk herbal medicine

Abstract The complete chloroplast genome of Ilex asprella, a species of Aquifoliaceae is reported for the first time in this study. The complete chloroplast genome of I. asprella is 157,856？bp in length with a typical quadripartite structure, consisting of a large single-copy region (LSC, 87,258？bp), a single-copy region (SSC, 18,441？bp) and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs, 26,082？bp). There are 114 genes annotated, including 85 unique protein-coding genes, four unique ribosomal RNA genes, and 30 transfer RNA genes. To investigate the evolution status of T. concolor, as well as Scrophulariaceae, we build a phylogenetic tree with I. asprella and other eight species based on their complete chloroplast genomes. According to the phylogenetic topologies, I. asprella was closely related to I. wilsonii