STM Article Repository

Jatropha curcas (Linn) is a well-known plant for biofuel production. However, the major problem that limits the cultivation of J. curcas worldwide is the presence of phorbol-ester. The phorbol-esters make the seeds toxic and inedible thus limiting its usage to biodiesel production only. The only non-toxic accession plant is present in Mexico. In order to increase the acceptability of J. curcas globally, development of a non-toxic line is very important. No study has been carried out to evaluate the toxicity of J. curcas seeds present in Mauritius. SSR markers related to toxicity were selected and used on three different plant accessions: J. curcas - from Kerala (toxic), from Mexico (non-toxic) and from Mauritius. Out of 45 SSRs developed for toxicity, only 18 gave polymorphic results indicating that J. curcas from Mauritius has the number of base pairs (bp) similar to the toxic variety from Kerala. To confirm the result, SCAR marker derived from SCoT6 was used. SCAR developed specifically for evaluation of toxicity showed that both the J. curcas from Mauritius and from Kerala had the same number of base pairs (505bp), whereas non-toxic Mexican J. curcas had 440bp. Hence, the toxic nature of J. curcas cultivated in Mauritius has been validated using molecular tools.