Abstract: Jatropha curcas is an oil-bearing plant with multiple uses and great potential for ener-gy application.In the present study,we preliminarily investigated genetic diversity of Chinese J.curcas germplasm by using SSR markers.A set of 219 J.curcas samples from all adaptation areas in China was adopted.Twenty pairs of SSR primers and four pairs of eSSR primers were designed based on the public database for nucleotide sequences of J.curcas.These SSR or eSSR well amplified all DNA samples.Among the 24 SSR or eSSR markers,eight(33.3%)detected polymorphism in the J.curcas population.The 24 SSR or eSSR markers amplified 36 loci in total,of which 12(33.33%) showed polymorphism.The average number of loci amplified by the SSR markers was 1.5.Therefore,there is a modest level of genetic diversity in Chinese J.curcas germplasm.