Transcriptome analysis of North American sweet birch (B. lenta L.) revealed a higher expression of genes involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites than European silver birch (B. pendula ROTH)

The North American B. lenta L. (sweet birch) has been used for medicinal reasons for centuries by native Americans. Although sophisticated technologies have rapidly been developed, a large information gap has been observed regarding genetic regulators of medicinally important compounds in sweet birch. Very little is known on the different genes involved in secondary metabolic biosynthesis in sweet birch. To gain a deeper insight into genetic factors, we performed a transcriptome analysis of three independent genotypes of B. lenta and B. pendula (RNA-seq of two tissues each: leaf and bark).