The first complete chloroplast sequence of a major tropical timber tree in the Meranti family: Vatica odorata (Dipterocarpaceae).

Dipterocarpaceae are one of the economically most important native tree families for timber production in tropical Asia. We report the complete chloroplast genome of Vatica odorata (Griff.) Symington, the first in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The chloroplast genome was 151,465 bp in length, with a large single-copy (LSC) region of 83,538 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 20,095 bp, separated by two inverted repeat (IRs) regions of 23,916 bp. It contained 126 genes, including 90 coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content was 37.2%, and 43.1%, 35.2%, and 33.3% in the IRs, LSC and SSC regions, respectively. A phylogenetic tree showed Vatica accumulated more variation when compared with Tilia, and that internal relationships in Malvales need to be reassessed.