Changes of Water Status and Different Responses of Osmoregulants in Jatropha Curcas L. Seedlings to Air-drought Stress

[Objective] The study aimed to investigate the changes of water status and different responses of osmoregulants during air-drought stress,to better understand mechanisms of drought resistance in Jatropha Curcas L. [Methods] The 12-day-old J. curcas seedlings were held in a climate chamber at 25/20 ℃（day/night）,16 hours illumination,and 75% of relative humidity for air-drought treatment,and the changes of water potential,osmotic potential and the content of soluble sugar,proline,betaine were measured. [Results] Water potential and osmotic potential in leaves of J. curcas seedlings dropped significantly,pressure potential lost during air-drought stress,and the contents of osmoregulants soluble sugar,proline and betaine rose significantly to different extent in the leaves and stems. [Conclusion] Osmoregulants in the leaves and stems respond differently to air-drought stress,and in general leaves are much more responsive to the drought than stems of J. curcas seedlings.

金沙江干热区麻疯树(Jatropha curcas L.)杂交育种技术的初步研究

对金沙江干热区麻疯树生物特性、开花特性、结实特性进行观测,并开展不同地理种源麻疯树杂交育种试验。结果表明,麻疯树在本区域生长发育较好,可持续开花结果至1月初,雌雄花比例可达1∶10左右。通过麻疯树杂交育种试验,研究了麻疯树雌雄花分辨、雌花可授粉时间、套袋材料及去袋时间等特性。通过对金沙江干热区麻疯树主要特性和杂交育种技术试验研究,有利于提高育种效果,加速育种进程,提高育种工作的预见性。

Distribution and development strategy for Jatropha curcas L. in Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Yunnan Province is the main distributing area ofJatropha curcas L. This plant is abundant in several drainage areas of the dry-hot, dry-warm and sub-humid valleys in the south subtropical area of Yunnan Province. The seeds that were picked from trees blossoming between April and May and fructifying between September and October will have large seed yield and fine quality. For developing bio-diesel stock forest ofJ. curcas in areas with adaptive climate, seeding measures for afforestation should be taken and techniques on breeding, fast-growing, and high-yielding plantation cultivation are very important.

对药用及能源植物Jatropha curcas L.的中文名称的建议

目前重要药用及能源植物Jatropha curcas L.的中文名称很多,给生产应用和科研等带来诸多不便。统一命名,特别是在当今信息化时代,对于学术交流和科技推广具有极其重要的意义。根据我国各地的中文名称使用习惯和大众心理,我们建议将Jatropha curcas L.的中文名称统一为"小油桐"。

甲基磺酸乙酯(EMS)处理对麻疯树(Jatropha curcas L.)萌发种子的生理效应

分析了不同甲基磺酸乙酯(EMS)浓度(0、0.1%、0.5%、1.0%、1.5%和2.0%)和在浓度为1.2%时不同处理时间(0、8、12、16h和20h)对麻疯树萌发种子的生理效应。结果表明,EMS对麻疯树种子的半致死浓度为1.2%,当浓度达到2.0%时,种子受到严重伤害,成苗率为1.67%。用1.2%浓度诱变麻疯树种子,随着处理时间的延长,种子受到的伤害也随之加重,并且产生的矮化植株率也随之大幅度升高,在处理时间大于12h时,得到的植株都是矮化植株,但当处理时间达到20h时种子成苗率为0。由此看来,用EMS诱变麻疯树种子的合适浓度为1.2%,处理时间应选在8～12h范围内。

金沙江干热区麻疯树(Jatropha curcas L.)白粉病危害特征观察

在麻疯树的规模种植区选定代表性的10株无病植株,观察白粉病的危害侵染特征。结果显示:群居的麻疯树极易感染白粉病,在麻疯树的整个生长期都会受到不同程度的危害,8～10月高温高湿条件下是发病的高峰期,11月份以后减缓危害速度,但不停止。结果对麻疯树白粉病预警预报和有效防控措施的制定提供参考依据。

麻疯树(Jatropha curcas L.)高含油量单株无性系筛选评价

利用初步筛选出的种仁含油量大于65%的10个麻疯树地理种源单株,以种仁含油量为目标,在元谋干热河谷区,经过3次无性繁殖复选,并对其种仁含油量进行测定评价。结果表明:由于生长环境的改变,10个单株材料的种仁含油量都有不同程度的下降,但来自元谋物茂乡、双柏大庄乡和云南永仁县的3个单株材料种仁含油量下降幅度较小,且连续表现稳定,可作为进一步品种选育和生产使用的无性系材料。

麻疯树(Jatropha curcas L.)种子总DNA提取方法的建立和优化

用种子提取DNA可省却培育幼苗过程而加快实验进度,为此建立了麻疯树(Jatropha curcas L.)种子DNA提取方法。针对麻疯树种子富含蛋白质、多酚及多糖等次生物质的特点,基于CTAB法进行优化,在研磨种子时加入抗氧化剂PVP去除多酚,接着用核分离缓冲液去除多糖,再通过酚-氯仿-异戊醇(体积比=25∶24∶1)抽提去除蛋白质。所提取的麻疯树种子总DNA浓度和质量均较高,经琼脂糖凝胶电泳和ISSR-PCR扩增得到了非常清晰的DNA条带。

Biodiesel Production from Crude Jatropha curcas L.Oil with Trace Acid Catalyst

Biodiesel produced from crude Jatropha curcas L.oil with trace sulfuric acid catalyst(0.02%-0.08% oil) was investigated at 135-184 ℃.Both esterification and transesterification can be well carried out simultane-ously.Factors affecting the process were investigated,which included the reaction temperature,reaction time,the molar ratio of alcohol to oil,catalyst amount,water content,free fatty acid(FFA) and fatty acid methyl ester(FAME) content.Under the conditions at 165 ℃,0.06%(by mass) H2SO4 of the oil mass,1.6 MPa and 20:1 methanol/oil ratio,the yield of glycerol reached 84.8% in 2 hours.FFA and FAME showed positive effect on the transesterification in certain extent.The water mass content below 1.0% did not show a noticeable effect on trans-esterification.Reaction kinetics in the range of 155 ℃ to 175 ℃ was also measured.

One-step process for production of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. seeds： Optimization using Response Surface Methodology （RSM）

Jatropha curcas L. （JCL） seeds were extracted and transesterified in-situ using supercritical methanol extraction in the absence of catalyst at different temperatures （200-280℃） and pressures （8-12 MPa）, and at a fixed reaction time of 30 min with seeds-to-methanol ratio of 1：40 w/v. Design of experiment approach using five-level-two-factors design of Response Surface Methodology （RSM） was used to observe the effect of two independent variables i.e. temperature and pressure and the percent of biodiesel yield which required 13 runs. For optimization of the variables, Central Composite Rotatable Design （CCRD） was used for regression analysis and analysis of variance （ANOVA）. The optimize conditions suggested by RSM were at T = 280℃ and P = 12.04 MPa. The predicted and experimental biodicsel yields were found to be 56.8% and 59.9%, respectively, with relatively small deviation errors of 1.59%.

Effects of Aluminum Toxicity on Physiological Indices of Jatropha curcas L.Seedling

Jatropha curcas was taken as the test material,6 concentrations including 0,25,50,100,200 and 400μmol/L AlCl3,plus 3 time gradients including 7,14 and 21 d,were set to study the effects of Al^(3+)stress on the antioxidant system of Jatropha curcas L.seedling.The results showed that with the Al^(3+)treatment being applied,protein content increased first,then decreased and finally increased with the increase of Al^(3+)concentration;the soluble sugar content increased first and then decreased with the increase of Al^(3+)concentration.Under low concentration of Al^(3+)treatment,Pro content,MDA content and POD activity of Jatropha curcas L.seedling leaves changed a little,while under high concentration of Al^(3+)treatment,Pro and MDA content of Jatropha curcas L.seedling leaves rapidly accumulated,POD activity increased and they showed a trend of increase with the increase of Al^(3+)concentration;From the perspective of Al^(3+)stress time,protein content,soluble sugar content,MDA content and POD activity increased with stress time being prolonged,while Pro content decreased with stress time being prolonged.These results indicated that the leaves of Jatropha curcas L.seedlings had certain self-protection and remediation abilities under Al^(3+)stress.

Cloning and expression analysis of HXK1 gene from Jatropha curcas L.

HXK(Hexokinase)gene family and the role of JcHXK1 in Jatropha curcas L.were explored.Totally 4 HXK genes JcHXK1,JcHXK2,JcHXK3 and JcHKL1 were identified and complete ORF of JcHXK1 was cloned.Functional domain,phylogenetic evolution and low-temperature expression characteristics were analyzed.Results showed that full-length JcHXK1 cDNA was 1497 bp,encoding 498 amino acids with molecular weight of 53.81 kDa and pI of 5.03.Further phylogenetic evolutionary analysis demonstrated HXK1 protein was clustered into 6 small branches and 2 large branches.Sequence alignment showed that HXK1 contained several conserved glycine residues and hydrophobic channels.Prokaryotic expression vector of JcHXK1 was constructed and 12%SDS-PAGE detection showed that it was highly expressed in E.coli.These research was expected to lay a foundation for further gene functional verification and cold signal transduction mechanism for HXK1 in Jatropha curcas L.

Floral display and breeding system of Jatropha curcas L.

Plant flowering and breeding characteristics are important for us to understand the reproduction of plant populations. In this paper, we studied the reproduction characteristics of Jatropha curcas in Yuanjiang County （23°36＇1＇4, 101°00＇E）, Yunnan Province. The plant produces flowers in dichasial inflorescences. Normally, the flowers are unisexual, and male and female flowers are produced in the same inflorescence. Only a few male flowers are produced in an inflorescence, and fruits are produced only through pollination between different flowers from the same or different plants. By the treatments of emasculation, bagging and artificial pollination in this experiment, there were few but same fruit set ratios when the inflorescences were emasculated, bagged, or bagged with net, except artificial pollination treatments, which showed that Jatropha curcas could produce fruit through apomixis but not wind pollination. When the inflorescences were unbagged, unemasculated and with free pollination treatments, or bagged, emasculated and with artificial cross-pollination treatments, or unbagged, emasculated and with free pollination treatments, there were many fruits produced. It showed that Jatropha curcas shows outcrossing, is self-compatible, and demanding for pollinators. Normally, the male flowers open first and a few flowers bloom in one day in a raceme. These flowers last a long time in bloom. However, a large number of female flowers open from the third to the fifth day, with some female flowers opening first in a few raceme. This shows a tendency to promote xenogamy and minimize geitonogamy.

<i>In</i><i>Silico</i>Mining of EST-SSRs in Jatropha curcas L. towards Assessing Genetic Polymorphism and Marker Development for Selection of High Oil Yielding Clones

In recent years, Jatropha curcas L. has gained popularity as a potential biodiesel plant. The varying oil content, reported between accessions belonging to different agroclimatic zones, has necessitated the assessment of the existing genetic variability to generate reliable molecular markers for selection of high oil yielding variety. EST derived SSR markers are more useful than genomic markers as they represent the transcriptome, thus, directly linked to functional genes. The present report describes the in silico mining of the microsatellites (SSRs) using J. curcas ESTs from various tissues viz. embryo, root, leaf and seed available in the public domain of NCBI. A total of 13,513 ESTs were downloaded. From these ESTs, 7552 unigenes were obtained and 395 SSRs were generated from 377 SSR-ESTs. These EST-SSRs can be used as potential microsatellite markers for diversity analysis, MAS etc. Since the Jatropha genes carrying SSRs have been identified in this study, thus, EST-SSRs directly linked to genes will be useful for developing trait linked markers.

Synthesis of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. seed oil using artificial zeolites loaded with CH3COOK as a heterogeneous catalyst

An environmentally benign process was devel-oped for the transesterification of Jatropha curcas L. seed oil with methanol using artificial zeolites loaded with potassium acetate as a heterogeneous catalyst. After calcination for 5 h at 823 K, the catalyst loaded with 47 wt.% CH3COOK exhibited the highest efficiency and best catalytic activity. The easily prepared cata-lysts were characterized by means of X-ray dif-fraction and IR spectroscopy, as well as Hammett indicator titration. The results revealed a strong dependence of catalytic activity on ba-sicity. The optimum reaction conditions for transesterification of J. curcas oil were also in-vestigated. The methyl ester content in the bio-diesel product exceeded 91% after 4h reaction at reflux temperature in the presence of 2% solid catalyst and no water washing process is needed during workup.

Some Biological Features of Aphtona whitfieldi Bryant (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), an Insect Pest of Jatropha curcas L. in Burkina Faso

Aphthona whitfieldi Bryant (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is a major insect pest of Jatropha curcas L. (Euphorbiacae) in Burkina Faso and other countries in West Africa. The insect pest feeds on the roots and the leaves of the plant. When the attacks are heavy, the plant may lose all its leaves and die off. Unfortunately, little information is available on the biology of this insect pest. A study was conducted on the biology of this insect pest in the Sissili province, South Burkina Faso and resulted in the knowledge of some of the biological features of the insect pest. Aphthona whitfieldi was reared from 13th July to 22th October 2015. Larvae and pupae were collected in J. curcas plantations near Léo, the capital city of the Sissili province, and brought to the laboratory for rearing. The insects were observed daily and the dimensions and the duration of each stage were recorded. We recorded two larval stages (1st and 3rd): a pre-pupa and a pupal stage. The pupa was free and white milk-like. Both the pre-pupa and the pupal stages lasted for five days. The 1st instar larva was smaller than the third one.

Gene cloning,expression analysis of JcACP (Acyl Carrier Protein) in Jatropha curcas L. and its prokaryotical expression

Objective To clone the ACP(acyl carrier protein)gene in Jatropha curcas L.,a potential anti-tumour and anti-fungal plant.And to determinate the expression of ACP in Jatropha curcas L.Methods A cDNA clone encoding ACP(acyl carrier protein)was isolated from Jatropha curcas L.endosperm cDNA library by random sequencing.The expression of ACP gene was investigated by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in leaves,stems and seeds of J.curca.The expression of ACP was also investigated in germinating seeds.The fragment encoding ACP protein in J.curca.was inserted into a prokaryotic expression vector pET28a(+).The gene was overexpressed in E.coli BL21 to produce abundant protein.Immunohistochemical analysis was used to detect the expression of ACP in different tissues of J.curca.Results The cDNA sequence was 806 bp in length and the ORF was 393 bp.The predicted molecular weight of the putative protein was 14.4 kD,pI=5.2.It contained a 4'-phosphopantetheine-binding motif.This prosthetic group can be combined with Serine of ACP protein.Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that ACP gene was expressed in leaves,stems and seeds of J.curcas.The expression level of ACP was the highest in seeds and it was not detected in roots.After seeds germinated,the expression level of ACP in seeds increased progressively and reached a peak at 96 h.After induced by IPTG,SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the ACP protein of 20 kD was expressed.Immunohistochemical analysis showed that ACP specifical expressed abundantly in embyo of the seeds,and it was not detected in roots and the emdosperm while expressed in leaves and stems.Conclusions A cDNA clone encoding ACP which had all the typical characteristics of ACPs was isolated.It was expressed successfully in E.coli.The results of semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis and immunohistochemical analysis were very similar,which showed that the expression of ACP in J.curcas.was abundant in seeds.The results indicated the expression related to the high metabolism.

In-Vitro Efficacy of Certain Essential Oils and Plant Extracts against Three Major Pathogens of Jatropha curcas L.

Antifungal activity of plant extracts and essential oils of six different plant species was tested against three pathogenic fungi, viz., Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Fusarium moniliforme isolated from Jatropha curcas L. using Poison Food Technique. All the samples tested were found effective in-vitro. More than 60% inhibition of growth of individual fungal species was observed at 100 ppm. Maximum inhibition was observed at concentration of 1000 ppm. However, among the essential oils tested Cinnamomum impressinervium exhibited the strongest activity (80%) in the case of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Alternaria alternate and 78.6% in the case of Fusarium oxysporum at concentration of 1000 ppm followed by Cinnamomum tamala, Cymbopogon jwarancusa and Cymbopogon citratus respectively. Among the plant extracts tested, Catharanthus roseus exhibited stronger activity in comparison to Tithonia diversifolia. Inhibition percentage of all the essential oils and plant extracts increased with the increase in concentration.

Damage of Coffee Bean Weevil (Araecerus fasciculatus De Geer) on Its New Host Jatropha curcas L.

[ Objective] Coffee bean weevil （Araecerusfasciculatus De Geer） is a worldwide important pest in storehouse, which distributes in tropical and subtropi- cal region, having overlapping ecological zone with the important biofuel plant Jatropha curcas L.. The paper was to investigate the damage of coffee bean weevil on J. curcas. [Method] Taking planting area in Luodian County of Guizhou Province as the investigation point, the forest stand of J. curcas in field and the indoor stored fruits were investigated, and the occurrence condition and damage consequence of the pest were grasped. Furthermore, the taxonomic status of the pest was also confirmed. [ Result] Coffee bean weevil had common distribution in planting area of J. curcas in Luodian, which was found to cause damage beth in field and indoor condition. The adults of coffee bean weevil fed on fungi with little direct damage on the fruit of J. curcas. However, the adults of the post laid their eggs in- side the peel of fruit, and the larvae hatched and fed inside the peel, resulting in the collapse of the peels, thus causing direct damage on the fruit. In addition, coffee bean weevil might have series of potential damages including direct feeding on seeds, spreading diseases, and posing damage on other economic crops in pro- duction area, etc.. [ Conclusion] J. curcas was an important new host for coffee bean weevil. The pest had certain damage on the plant, which also had potential damage on plant products and other economic crops. The research and control efforts on coffee bean weevil should be strengthened.

Microscopic Identification of Zhuang Medicine Jatropha curcas L.

[Objective] This study was conducted to investigate the microscopic identification characteristics of Jatropha curcas .[Methods] Jatropha curcas was identified by microscopic identification. [Results] The stem bark of J. curcas has a thick phellem layer and broad cortex layer; and there are a great deal of dispersed laticifers and many fibers. The parenchymal cells contain clusters of calcium oxalate. In the powder, there are many clusters of calcium oxalate; the secreta is often dispersed; and the stomata are in parallel axle shape. Brown bodies can be seen commonly. [Conclusion] The results of the microscopic identification are reliable. These characteristics could provide an effective basis for the differentiation of this plant from other plants in the same genus and the establishment of its quality standard.