A 3-way interspecific Jatropha hybrid, a picture set on Flickr following the development.
To the best of our knowledge this is a first in commercial hybrid Jatropha breeding history: Bionic Palm has succeeded to naturally create an innovative interspecific hybrid which contains genetic material from 3 different Jatropha species. No GMO was involved in the process.Over the coming 12 to 18 months breeding specialists will explore all angles of this exciting success. This group of plants has the potential to mark the beginning of a new era in the development of commercially viable Jatropha planting material. It opens the route to a plethora of new traits including the potential to develop semi-annual Jatropha curcas hybrids similar to commercial Castor varieties. Still in its earliest state, this development could of course turn out a complete failure. Only time will tell.
Bionic Palm Jatropha breeders have worked for three years to identify a working breeding path that allows for this unique combination of genetic material. Already a large number of new crosses using genetically diverse parental interspecific hybrids are under development to confirm this break through. If reproduction turns out successful this approach will be available for the development of many new superior hybrid Jatropha cultivars.
In any case this was a key objective of Bionic Palm's Jatropha Breeder 3.0 platform development for the last 3 years. Finally getting there after many failures sets another milestone on the continuous success path of the project. Patent applications for the protocol that has been developed to make this procedure repetitive are under way.
