Transcriptomic comparison between nickel hyperaccumulator and non-accumulator plant species from the Homalium genus (Salicaceae) endemic from New Caledonia

The leaf transcriptome of the nickel hyperaccumulator species Homalium kanaliense (Salicaceae) endemic from New caledonia were compared to the closely related non-accumulator Homalium betulifolium, living on Gallery forest or maquis on serpentine soil, to identity differentially expressed genes potentially involved in Ni hyperaccumulation. Overall design: Leaves from 3 independant individual plants of Homalium kanaliense and Homalium betulifolium were collected in their natural environment. RNA of the 6 independant samples were extracted and sequenced using the Illumina paired-end sequencing technology. Reads from one individual plant per species were assembled de novo to generate transcriptome sequences. The transcriptome of H. kanaliense was used as a reference to compare the expression of genes in both species.