Evolutionary dynamics of nickel hyperaccumulation in Alyssum revealed by its nrDNA analysis

•   Molecular phylogeny based on ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences was studied to investigate the phyletic relationships among some nickel (Ni)-hyperaccumulating and nonhyperaccumulating species of the genus Alyssum in relation to their geographic distribution and Ni-hyperaccumulating phenotype. •   Thirty-seven samples belonging to 32 taxa were analysed by sequencing the polymerase chain reaction-amplified ITS region and performing neighbor joining, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses. •   The ITS region in the sampled species varied from 221 to 307 bp of ITS1 and from 194 to 251 bp of ITS2. A total of 765 characters was used to infer the phylogeny and the average nucleotide variation detected was 15.15%. •   Nickel-hyperaccumulation could have been lost or acquired independently more than once during the speciation of the genus. The geographical location of species could not be related to phylogenetic affinities.