title: Seed traits, fatty acid profile and genetic diversity assessment in Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre germplasm.
abstract: Phenotypic variation of important seed traits like seed length, seed breadth, seed thickness, 100 seed weight and seed oil content were recorded in a total of 157 collected accessions of Pongamia. Out of these, fatty acid profiles of 38 accessions selected based on their high and low oil content was analyzed. Fatty acid profile revealed high variability in stearic, oleic and linoleic acid which varied from 0.42 to 10.61 %, 34.34 to 74.58 %, and 7.00 to 31.28 % respectively. Variations in palmitic and linolenic acid were small. Iodine value, saponification number and cetane number (CN) of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) of seed oil ranges from 186.99 to 201.25, 81.13 to 108.19 and 46.16 to 56.47 respectively. Fatty acid compositions, degree of unsaturation and CN are the important parameters, which are used to determine quality of FAME were used as biodiesel. Some of the Pongamia accessions identified were higher in oil content while some accessions showed higher degree of unsaturation and a few of them had CN values higher than 55. Genetic diversity analysis with six TE-AFLP primers generated a total of 334 bands out of which 174 (52.10 %) were polymorphic. The genetic similarity ranged from 0.11 to 0.47. These findings clearly showed high level of genetic diversity and all economically desirable traits were not present in a single genotype of Pongamia. All these traits could be selected from these CPTs and transfer to a single elite variety through selection and breeding programme and could be utilized for large scale multiplication and plantation to produce high quantity and quality biodiesel in future.
authors.affiliation: TERI University, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110 070 India ; The Energy and Resources Institute, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, 110 003 India.
authors.forename: Shyam Sundar
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: TERI University, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110 070 India.
authors.forename: Md Aminul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: TERI University, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110 070 India.
authors.forename: Anoop Anand
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: The Energy and Resources Institute, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, 110 003 India.
authors.forename: Kamlesh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: The Energy and Resources Institute, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, 110 003 India.
authors.forename: Madan Singh
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Negi
authors.affiliation: TERI University, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110 070 India ; The Energy and Resources Institute, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, 110 003 India.
authors.forename: Shashi Bhushan
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Tripathi
keywords: Fatty acid methyl esters; Gas chromatography; Genetic diversity; Oil content; Pongamia pinnata; TE-AFLP