Transcriptomic comparison between nickel hyperaccumulator and non-accumulator plant species from the Leucocroton and Lasiocroton genus (Euphorbiaceae) from Cuba

The leaf transcriptome of the nickel hyperaccumulator Leucocroton havanensis (Euphorbiaceae) living on serpentine Cuabal, from Cuba, was compared to the closely related non-accumulator Lasiocroton microphyllus living on Gallery forest on limestone soil, to identity differentially expressed genes potentially involved in Ni hyperaccumulation. Overall design: Leaves from independent plants of Leucocroton havanensis and Lasiocroton micrphyllus were collected in their natural environment. Leucocroton havanensis was also in vitro cultured on Murashige & Skoog medium with agar containing 500 mg/L NiSO4 as described in Gonzalez, D. & Matrella, S. Nickel hyperaccumulation 'in vitro' by Leucocroton havanensis (Euphorbiaceae). Rev. del Jardín Botánico Nac. 34–35, 83–88 (2013). RNA of the 3 independant samples were extracted and sequenced using the Illumina paired-end sequencing technology. Reads from Leucocroton havanensis in vitro cultured experiment and Lasiocroton microphyllus environmental sample were assembled de novo to generate transcriptome sequences. The transcriptome of L. havanensis was used as a reference to compare the expression of genes in the three samples.