Abstract
BackgroundJatropha curcus is a good candidate plant for biodiesel production in tropical and subtropical regions. However, J. curcus is susceptible to the geminivirus Indian cassava mosaic virus (ICMV), and frequent viral disease outbreaks severely limit productivity. Therefore the development of J. curcus to carry on durable virus resistance remains crucial and poses a major biotechnological challenge.ResultsWe generated transgenic J. curcus plants expressing a hairpin, double-stranded (ds) RNA with sequences homologous to five key genes of ICMV-Dha strain DNA-A, which silences sequence-related viral genes thereby conferring ICMV resistance. Two rounds of virus inoculation were conducted via vacuum infiltration of ICMV-Dha. The durability and heritability of resistance conferred by the dsRNA was further tested to ascertain that T1 progeny transgenic plants were resistant to the ICMV-SG strain, which shared 94.5% nucleotides identity with the ICMV-Dha strain. Quantitative PCR analysis showed that resistant transgenic lines had no detectable virus.ConclusionsIn this study we developed transgenic J. curcus plants to include a resistance to prevailing geminiviruses in Asia. These virus-resistant transgenic J. curcus plants can be used in various Jatropha breeding programs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-014-0149-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Jatropha curcus is a good candidate plant for biodiesel production in tropical and subtropical regions
In this study we developed transgenic J. curcus plants to include a resistance to prevailing geminiviruses in Asia
These virus-resistant transgenic J. curcus plants can be used in various Jatropha breeding programs
Summary
Jatropha curcus is a good candidate plant for biodiesel production in tropical and subtropical regions. J. curcus is susceptible to the geminivirus Indian cassava mosaic virus (ICMV), and frequent viral disease outbreaks severely limit productivity. A small woody plant belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family, is a non-food oil seed crop mainly grown in the tropical and subtropical regions. This plant possesses several traits render this woody plant suitable for biodiesel feedstock production. It is easy to propagate and grows rapidly It has a short gestation period, low seed cost and high oil content. The disease incidence is significant in the Indian subcontinent; about 25% in northern India [1] and up to 47% in southern India [2]
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