Heavy-Metal Concentrations in Sediments Collected from ICRISAT Lake, Patancheru, India

To determine and characterize the initial background concentrations of heavy metals, a total of 50 sediment samples were collected from the largest lake at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Patancheru, India. The finely ground sediment samples were digested using a microwave-assisted digestion method and analyzed for 15 heavy metals using inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The results showed that the concentrations of the heavy metals varied greatly with metal and sediment sample, but in general the concentrations were low. Our results suggest that the sediments from this lake (15 ha in area) at the ICRISAT center do not appear contaminated with the heavy metals evaluated, and they indeed reflect normal background concentrations of these metals released through the natural process of weathering

Morphological, physico-chemical and micropropagation studies in Jatropha curcas L. and RAPD analysis of the regenerants

Four accessions of Jatropha curcas L. were characterized with respect to their yield and physico-chemical properties of seed-oil. Further, an efficient micropropagation protocol was developed followed by RAPD analysis of the regenerants. Although the highest 1000-seed-weight and seed-oil content were recorded in OJC1 and OJC5 accessions respectively, the seed-oil of OJC9 accession was more suited for biodiesel production due to the desirable characteristics like low values of free fatty acids, acid value, moisture content and total unsaturated fatty acids. An accession - independent micropropagation protocol of Jatropha was optimized by using axillary nodal explants with MS medium supplemented with a combination of growth regulators, glutamine and citric acid. All the accessions were amenable to in vitro culture, and the highest number of plantlets could be regenerated from the OJC5 accession. Although no somaclonal variation was recorded in the regenerants of all the accessions, RAPD analysis confirmed their genetic similarity and also the similarity of the clones with their respective mother plants.Jatropha curcas Physico-chemical properties In vitro regeneration Micropropagation Axillary node RAPD