Genetically Engineered Jatropha: A New Bioenergy Crop

Abstract

Jatropha cur, a bioenergy crop, has been considered as an alternate source of biodiesel due to its several advantages over other edible and non-edible oil seed crops. A number of traits such as seed yield, oil content, lateral branching, female-to-male flower ratio and synchronous maturity are among others considered for plant breeding and enhancing oil content. In this chapter, we have presented progress on transgenic research including evaluation of promoters for increased expression levels. The performance of transgenic plants under greenhouse and field conditions has been gauged.