Adenine sulfate and glutamine enhanced shoots multiplication in Jatropha curcas L. a potent biofuel plant

Jatropha is a drought-tolerant plant producing seed oil for the biodiesel. Limitation to the development of jatropha is unavailability of high-yielding varieties and efficient in vitro regeneration system which is required for micropropagation. In this study, in vitro regeneration system from jatropha juvenile cotyledon was established. Firstly, concentrations of hormones in the MS medium were optimized and it was found that 1.5 mgL-1 benzyl adenine (BA) + 0.05 mgL-1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) + 0.5 mgL-1 thidiazuron (TDZ) turned out to be the best for shoot induction (3.82 ± 0.18 shoots/explant). Secondly, shoot induction medium was fortified with different concentrations of glutamine and adenine sulfate. It was found that 25 mgL-1 each of glutamine and adenine sulfate was the most effective, resulting to 9.09 ± 0.37 shoots/explant and 93.0% regeneration frequency. Regenerated shoots were cultured on medium containing 0.5 mgL-1 BA and different concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3), 0.5 mgL-1 GA3 with 0.5 mgL-1 BA  were found to be the best for shoot elongation (2.13 ± 0.18 cm). The highest frequency of root (40%) was observed on the medium with 0.5 mgL-1 IBA. The established procedures will be useful for the mass propagation and genetic transformation of elite jatropha genotypes.   Key words: Adenine sulfate (Ads), benzyl adenine (BA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), in vitro regeneration, glutamine (Gln).