Background: Physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) is a potential feedstock for biofuel production because Jatropha oil is highly suitable for the production of the biodiesel and bio-jet fuels. However, Jatropha exhibits low seed yield as a result of unreliable and poor flowering. FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) –like genes are important flowering regulators in higher plants. To date, the flowering genes in Jatropha have not yet been identified or characterized. Results: To better understand the genetic control of flowering in Jatropha, an FT homolog was isolated from Jatropha and designated as JcFT. Sequence analysis and phylogenetic relationship of JcFT revealed a high sequence similarity with the FT genes of Litchi chinensis, Populus nigra and other perennial plants. JcFT was expressed in all tissues of adult plants except young leaves, with the highest expression level in female flowers. Overexpression of JcFT in Arabidopsis and Jatropha using the constitutive promoter cauliflower mosaic virus 35S or the phloem-specific promoter Arabidopsis SUCROSE TRANSPORTER 2 promoter resulted in an extremely early flowering phenotype. Furthermore, several flowering genes downstream of JcFT were up-regulated in the JcFT-overexpression transgenic plant lines. Conclusions: JcFT may encode a florigen that acts as a key regulator in flowering pathway. This study is the first to functionally characterize a flowering gene, namely, JcFT, in the biofuel plant Jatropha.

Strigolactone (SL), auxin and cytokinin (CK) interact to regulate shoot branching. CK has long been considered to be the only key phytohormone to promote lateral bud outgrowth. Here we report that gibberellin also acts as a positive regulator in the control of shoot branching in the woody plant Jatropha curcas. We show that gibberellin and CK synergistically promote lateral bud outgrowth, and that both hormones influence the expression of putative branching regulators, J. curcas BRANCHED1 and BRANCHED2, which are key transcription factors maintaining bud dormancy. Moreover, treatment with paclobutrazol, an inhibitor of de novo gibberellin biosynthesis, significantly reduced the promotion of bud outgrowth by CK, suggesting that gibberellin is required for CK-mediated axillary bud outgrowth. In addition, SL, a plant hormone involved in the repression of shoot branching, acted antagonistically to both gibberellin and CK in the control of lateral bud outgrowth. Consistent with this, the expression of JcMAX2, a J. curcas homolog of Arabidopsis MORE AXILLARY GROWTH 2 encoding an F-box protein in the SL signaling pathway, was repressed by gibberellin and CK treatment. We also provide physiological evidence that gibberellin also induces shoot branching in many other trees, such as papaya, indicating that a more complicated regulatory network occurs in the control of shoot branching in some perennial woody plants.

Plant dehydrin proteins (DHNs) are known to be important for environmental stress tolerance and are involved in various developmental processes. Two full
length cDNAs JcDHN
1 and JcDHN
2 encoding two dehydrins from Jatropha cur
cas seeds were identified and characterized. JcDHN
1 is 764 bp long and contains an open reading frame of 528 bp. The deduced JcDHN
1 protein has 175 a.a. residues that form a 19.3
kDa polypeptide with a predicted isoelectric point (pI) of 6.41. JcDHN
2 is 855 bp long and contains an open reading frame of 441 bp. The deduced JcDHN
2 protein has 156 a.a. residues that form a 17.1
kDa polypeptide with a predicted pI of 7.09. JcDHN
1 is classified as type Y3SK2 and JcDHN
2 is classified as type Y2SK2 according to the YSK shorthand for structural classification of dehydrins. Homology analysis indi
cates that both JcDHN
1 and JcDHN
2 share identity with DHNs of other plants. Analysis of the conserved domain revealed that JcDHN
2 has glycoside hydrolase GH20 super
family activity. Quantitative real time PCR analysis for JcDHN
1 and JcDHN
2 expression during seed development showed increasing gene expression of both their transcript levels along with the natural dehydration process during seed development. A sharp increase in JcDHN
2 transcript level occurred in response to water content dropping from 42% in mature seeds to 12% in dry seeds. These results indicate that both JcDHNs have the potential to play a role in cell protection during dehydration occurring naturally during jatropha orthodox seed development.

The most commonly used protocol of the RNA isolation, the guanidine thiocyanate method, was unsuitable for recalcitrant plant tissues containing a large amount of storage proteins and secondary metabolites. We demonstrated that RNA could bind to the silica particles, which have been used successfully in DNA isolation from various sources, under a high concentration of NaCl in the presence of ethanol and sodium acetate. Based on this observation, an efficient, inexpensive, and highly reproducible technique, the acid phenol silica method, was developed to isolate high-quality RNAs from various plant tissues recalcitrant to extraction in guanidine thiocyanate.

SaPIN2a, a plant proteinase inhibitor from nightshade(Solanum americanum), was located to the enucleate sieve elements (SEs) of phloem. The expressed SaPIN2a in transgenic lettuce showed inhibition of plant endogenous trypsin- and chymotrypsin-like activities,suggesting that SaPIN2a can regulate proteolysis in plant cells. To further investigate the physiological role of SaPIN2a, we produced transgenic nightshade and lettuce plants overexpressing SaPIN2a from the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter using Agrobacterium- mediated transformation. Overexpression of SaPIN2a in transgenic plants was demonstrated by northern blot and western blot analysis. SaPIN2aoverexpressing transgenic nightshade plants showed significantly lower height than wild-type plants. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that chloroplast- like organelles with thylakoids, which are not present in enucleate SEs of wild-type plants, were present in the enucleate SEs of SaPIN2a-overexpressing transgenic plants. This finding is discussed in terms of the possible role played by SaPIN2a in the regulation of proteolysis in SEs.