A Resources Investigation on the Content of Curcin in Jatropha Seed Endosperm Collected from Six Location in Sichuan, Yunnan and Hainan Province

Abstract:

The ribosome inactivating protein (curcin) expressed in Jatropha curcas L provides advantages, comparing to prokaryotic expression systems, on the study of protein folding and modification for better development and application of the protein. Therefore, the preservation and investigation of the plant resource for future research and application of the protein are necessary. In our study, a resources investigation was implemented, with the seeds of Jatropha curcas L collected from 6 individual locations (Xichang, Panzhihua, Haikou, Sanya, Renli and Dongfang) in Sichuan, Yunnan and Hainan province. The results showed that the average content of curcin in Jatropha curcas seed endosperm from all six locations is 1.8770-2.5602 mg/g, in descending order of Xichang, Sanya, Haikou, Renli, Panzhihua, Dongfang with relatively large differences between each locations. As illustrated in the data analysis, the seeds collected from Renli provided the highest coefficient of variation (14.6189) and the lowest (7.1876) was recorded in Haikou. The traits correlation of the seeds showed that the content of curcin in endosperm was not associated with hundred-seed-weight and kernel percentage and had weak relevance with the oil from whole seed, but a slight negative correlation was found in the analysis of the relevance of the content of curcin and soluble protein in endosperm (α=0.01). Based on these data, we concluded that the seeds in Xichang with a higher curcin expression could be used as a source of material in the research and application in curcin at this stage.

Key words:Jatropha curcas L.; Ribosome inactivating protein content; Resources investigation