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2018

Researchers put forward new views on the evolution of rubber species

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Recently, the research results of the cooperation between the Rubber Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences and the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences appeared in an international academic authoritative journal. The journal is Nature Plants, a subsidiary of Nature Publishing Group. In this research result, researchers obtained a high-quality reference genome of rubber trees and proposed new ideas on the evolution of rubber species and ethylene-stimulated rubber production.

Natural rubber is an important industrial raw material and strategic material. It is irreplaceable due to its good elasticity, stretchability, tear resistance, fatigue resistance, aging resistance and other comprehensive properties. Among more than 2,000 rubber-producing plants, the Brazilian rubber tree has become almost the only commercial source of natural rubber due to its high yield, good quality, easy collection and long continuous production cycle.

But why can rubber trees produce high rubber? Is this characteristic related to its environmental adaptation and evolution? In production, why can ethylene treatment significantly increase rubber production? These are important theoretical issues that have long been unresolved in the study of rubber production biology.

With the support of the basic research operating expenses of the Rubber Institute of the Institute of Thermal Science and the 863 sub-project, the research team of Tang Chaorong and the research team of Yang Meng of the Institute of Genomics have successfully constructed a high-quality rubber genome draft after more than 5 years of joint research. The spliced sequence covers 93.8% of the genome.

The researchers discovered the important driving force for the occurrence and high yield of large rubber particles and explained the reasons why ethylene stimulates the increase in rubber production. This research result will greatly promote the research on the rubber production biology of rubber plants and lay a good foundation for the exploration and utilization of excellent rubber tree germplasm and the high-yield and high-quality improvement.

Nature Plants mainly publishes outstanding research results in pure theory and application fields in various fields of botany, as well as research results on the interaction between plants and the outside world.