Jatropha, Challenges for a New Energy Crop

Jatropha, Challenges for a New Energy Crop, Volume 1 reports on the state of the art of scientific investigations on the new crop Jatropha curcas made during the past decade. The progresses obtained on the knowledge of this abstemious, semi-wild species are already impressive and were mainly achieved in just a decade (2001- 2011). This knowledge extends from basic Jatropha physiology and biological reproduction to the basic agronomic practices and systems for its productive management, but also the complete set of biotechnological tools, such as in vitro culture, genetic transformation, genomic sequence, genetic map, and markers assisted selection that are necessary for its selective breeding. These scientific and technological achievements paved the way for the future technological management and domestication of Jatropha as an industrial oilseed crop able to contribute to the feeding of the transport system.

The two book series on Jatropha is the first comprehensive compilation by global experts. It is an essential text in view of the importance that Jatropha demonstrated worldwide by its large scale cultivation and emerging value for energy business as a biofuel. This first volume is presented in five units comprising 30 chapters covering the main aspects of the worldwide economic importance of Jatropha as well as its physiology, farming, oil processing, by-products, biodiesel, and biofuel combustion. Volume 1 provides a comprehensive picture on the whole productive chain of Jatropha and helps the reader to make a mental representation concerning the potential of Jatropha as a crop.

Auteur

Nicolas Carels has been graduate in Agronomy in Belgium and did a PhD in plant pathology (FUSAGx, Gembloux) prior to work as a scientist on the elaboration of the first genetic map of sugarbeet at the end of the 1980's (ICIseed-SES, Belgium). He then moved to Paris (IJM, CNRS, France) where he did a PhD on the genome organization in plants. He continued his work on genomics in Italy (SZN, Naples) and Spain (INTA-CAB, Madrid, Torrejon de Ardoz) prior to move to Brazil (Bahia, Ilhéus, UESC) where he contributed to the application of bioinformatics and genomics to the improvement of Cacao and Rubber Tree for resistance to fungal diseases. He took Jatropha at its beginning when it was declared a strategic crop for the Brazilian economy by President Lula. His investigations covered the measure of the genome size by flow cytometry and the application of reverse genetics to detect QTLs for oil production with the purpose of breeding Jatropha for this trait. He also published an extensive review (ABR) on Jatropha and more recently an overview on the bioenergies (InTech) with special concern for climate change mitigation and biodiversity preservation. He is now a Federal Officer of Fiocruz (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and is interested by the exploration of genomics, bioinformatics and natural products for the human health benefit.

Mulpuri Sujatha has been graduated in Plant Sciences by the University of Hyderabad (UoH), India. She has a PhD in Genetics from Osmania University, Hyderabad (OU) and worked on intergeneric and interspecific affinities between Ricinus and Jatropha. She made significant contributions for the genetic improvement of oilseed crops through genetics, tissue culture and biotechnological tools. The important achievements include development of male sterility systems in safflower, sunflower and niger; reliable and efficient tissue culture and transformation protocols for sunflower, castor, niger, safflower, and Jatropha. Thegenetic transformation protocols developed are being used for development of insect resistant transgenics through deployment of suitable Cry genes in castor, development of transgenic male sterility and fertility restoration system in safflower and development of transgenics for resistance to necrosis disease in sunflower. Her experience in molecular markers resulted in mapping of downy mildew resistance gene (Pl13) in sunflower besides development of appropriate molecular markers for distinguishing the toxic and non-toxic accessions of Jatropha curcas. Bir Bahadur has graduated from Nizam College and Post-graduated from University college, Osmania University, Hyderabad India. He obtained his PhD in Plant Genetics from Osmania university and was closely associated with Prof. J.B.S. Haldane, FRS, the renowned Geneticist of last century. He advised, guided and encouraged him to study heterostyly and incompatibility in Indian plant species, a subject first studied by Charles Darwin in England about 160 years back. He made significant contributions in several areas of plant biology especially in incompatibility, mutagenesis, morphogenesis, tissue culture, and organism asymmetry.,application of SEM in plant sciences He published over 250 research papers, which are well received and quoted in national and international journals, including number of theses and several publications on Jatropha and Castor. He served Osmania and Kakatiya Universities as Lecturer, Reader and Professor, also served as Chairman, Head of Department, Dean of the Faculty of Science ,Kakatiya University,Warangal. He has taught the genetics, biotechnology and reproduction of plants for over 40 years and accumulated research experience in these areas for about 50 years. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Genetics of Hungarian Academy (Budapest), recipient of the Royal Society Bursary, London and Honorary Research Fellow at the Birmingham University(UK). He has been invited speaker of over 100 conferences including Max Plank Institute, Koln (Germany), Institute of Genetics (Budapest), Birmingham (UK), University Texas, Houstan (USA) and Missouri University, St Louis (USA), Sabrao conference, Szukoba, Tokyo (Japan), Indian Science Congress etc. He has authored / edited 8 books and was Chief Editor of both Proceedings of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (Hyderabad, India) and Journal of Palynology (Lucknow, India). He is on the editorial boards of several Journals in India. He is recipient of Best Teacher Award by A.P. state Government and Prof. Vishwamber Puri, Gold Medal of Indian Botanical Society for his original contributions in various aspects of plant sciences. He is fellow of over dozen professional bodies in India and abroad including the Fellow of Linnean Society, London, Fellow of Institute of Biology, and Chartered Biologist, London, Fellow o...

Résumé
The book will be a broad and comprehensive look on Jatropha until the details since the book is being contributed by international experts worldwide that have already published works in the international press of Science. Illustrations, tables geographic maps, GPS location, etc are added by each contributors according to the feeling they have concerning what they think their contribution should be. This book will benefit the scientific community immensely. Being aware of any challenges related to Jatropha, i.e. (i) its economy in Asia (India, China) and South America (Brazil), (ii) basics of biofuel technology, (iii) physiology, (iv) farming, (v) byproducts, (vi) biotechnology, (vii) genetic resource (germplasm) and their benefit for the crop by genetic transfer, (viii) genetic map, (ix) comparative genetics, (x) genomics. Breeders and technologist will have access to a complete digested view on Jatropha to decide where and how they should move on with their investigations.

Contenu
Part 1 - Worldwide importance of Jatropha.- Global status of bioenergy research and Jatropha: A Review.- The economic importance of Jatropha for India.- The economic importance of Jatropha in China.- The economic importance of Jatropha in Brazil.- Part 2 - Biology and reproduction.- Wood anatomy of Indian Jatrophas.- Laticifers of Jatrophas.- Breeding system and pollination Biology of Jatropha curcas L: A Review.- LM and SEM of pollen in Indian species o…