Analysis of genetic diversity and fatty acid composition in a prebreeding material of Jatropha

Genetic and fatty acid variability in four datasets of accessions and prebreeding lines of Jatropha curcas was analyzed. The datasets were comprised of J. curcas accessions (13), BC1 (28), BC1F2 (12) and single seeds (12). The BC1, BC1F2 and single seed dataset were derived from an interspecific cross between J. curcas and J. integerrima. The average within-group (within dataset) polymorphism revealed by AFLP markers was 28.5 %. The average genetic similarity within the four datasets, namely, J. curcas accessions, BC1, BC1F2 and single seeds was 0.92, 0.82, 0.90 and 0.92 respectively with an overall average genetic similarity of 0.80. The values of percent polymorphism, Shannon’s information index and expected heterozygosity were highest for BC1 dataset. The total unsaturated fatty acids in the oil varied from 63.64 to 89.10 %. Levene’s test showed that within-group variance was significantly different for three fatty acids, namely, palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid. BC1F2 dataset had the highest variance for palmitic and oleic acid, whereas BC1 dataset had the highest variance for linoleic acid. The results revealed that both genetic as well as fatty acid variability was significantly higher in the newly created prebreeding lines and the level of fatty acid variability in these datasets was different and highly correlated to the level of their genetic variability as revealed by AFLP markers. This new prebreeding material, especially, the BC1 and BC1F2 lines, will be useful for development of Jatropha varieties with specific fatty acid composition for specific industrial applications.?