title: Breeding of high-oil Jatropha curcas L for biodiesel production.
abstract: Different geographic seed sources (80) of Jatropha curcas L. were collected in South China and planted in a germplasm resource garden to study their biological and agricultural properties. The average ground diameter, tree height and crown size of two-year old plants of the 80 sources was 7.6 cm, 167 cm and 114 cm, respectively, the average 1000-seed weight was 0.676 (0.477-0.876) kg. The trees grew further to the average size of 12.6 cm diameter, 2.69 m height and 2.1 m crown at the 4th year. Among the 80 sources, six sources had higher oil yield (seed oil content of 40%-42%) and better behaving in expression of phenotype were selected for a small-scale trial of forestation to determine oil yield. Among them a provenance with outstand in expression of phenotype yielded 964.3, 2000.6 and 2858.7 kg/ha was achieved for two- three- and four-year old trees, respectively. Additionally, a new Jatropha mutant was found in the wild and hybridization experiments showed that its oil content increased by 6%.
authors.affiliation: Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China. ycy@xtbg.org.cn
authors.forename: Chengyuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jianzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D001947:Breeding; D046508:Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D031286:Jatropha / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000032:analysis*; D012639:Seeds / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D010938:Plant Oils