Guilandina minax (Hance) G. P. Lewis, commonly known as ‘Whiteflower Cacalia’, is a traditional medicinal plant extensively utilized by the Zhuang, Yao, and Dai ethnic minority groups. In this study, we sequenced and characterized the complete chloroplast genome of G. minax, and conducted a phylogenetic analysis to elucidate its evolutionary relationships within the Fabaceae. The chloroplast genome of G. minax was found to be 156,769 bp in length, with an overall GC content of 37.20%. It exhibited the typical quadripartite structure comprising a large single-copy (LSC) region of 85,264 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 15,543 bp, and a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions, each measuring 27,981 bp. A total of 127 genes were annotated from the chloroplast genome of G. minax, including 82 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. A maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis based on the complete chloroplast genomes of G. minax along with 28 species from the Fabaceae family and 2 outgroup taxa indicated that G. minax is most closely related to Guilandina bonduc. This study provides valuable genomic resources for G. minax and contributes to a more resolved understanding of phylogenetic relationships within the Fabaceae.
Zhang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.