Background Serine protease inhibitors (SPI) comprising 60-90 amino acid residues, are frequent in plants, and belong to the protein family PR-6. It has recently been shown that a SPI-variant of wheat acts as an important allergen in baker’s asthma but not in persons suffering from wheatinduced food allergy. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of a recombinant SPI-variant of Hevea br...

Rubber wood (Hevea brasiliensis) was esterfied with phenylisothiocyanate, and dimensional stability, decay resistance, and photo stability of the modified wood was assessed. The chemically modified wood was characterized by FTIR and CP/MAS C NMR spectroscopy. Unmodified and modified samples were exposed to a brown rot (Polyporus meliae) and a white rot (Coriolus versicolor) fungus for 12 weeks....

Along with changes in morphology in the course of maturation, leaves of Hevea brasiliensis become more resistant to leaf diseases, including the South American Leaf Blight (SALB), a devastating fungal disease of this economically important tree species. To understand the underlying mechanisms of this defense, and to identify the candidate genes involved, we sequenced the Hevea leaf transcriptom...

A rubber biosynthesis stimulator protein (RBSP)from the C-serum of Hevea brasiliensis latex was purified and characterised. This proteinaceous factor stimulates the incorporation of isopentenyl diphosphate into rubber and thereby enhances the rate of rubber biosynthesis. The heat stable RBSP is shown to have a molecular weight of 13 068 Da by mass spectroscopy. Amino acid sequence of peptide fr...

Heritability and interactions of yield and growth traits were assessed in Hevea brasiliensis using full-sib progenies and clonal populations. Using parent-offspring regression, annual mean rubber yield (ARY) and summer yield (SY) showed moderate to high heritability (ARY, h2 =34–56%; SY, h2 =36–52%). Among the yield components, girth exhibited low to moderate heritability (h2 =17–36%) while bra...

Sucrose-metabolizing enzymes in plant leaves have hitherto been investigated mainly in temperate plants, and rarely conducted in tandem with gene expression and sugar analysis. Here, we investigated the sugar content, gene expression, and the activity of sucrose-metabolizing enzymes in the leaves of Hevea brasiliensis, a tropical tree widely cultivated for natural rubber. Sucrose, fructose and ...

* Author for correspondence: Plant Development & Breeding Research Unit, CIRAD, Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. Tel: 33 4 67 61 58 00, Email: [email protected]. Rubber tree breeding and the dissemination of planting material for plantations are closely linked to propagation methods. Since the progress made by switching from multiplication by seed to propagation by bud...

The annual plant Taraxacum kok-saghyz, commonly called Russian dandelion, has recently gained commercial attention as an alternative source to the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, for natural rubber latex. While producing rubber of equivalent quality, the potential application of TKS latex for hypoallergenic products remains to be determined. In order to quantify the allergenicity of TKS latex ...