Abstract:

Natural rubber, which is produced as a secondary plant metabolite, has been well recognized as an important raw industrial material due to its unique properties that can not be substituted by any alternative synthetic ones. This makes the worldwide supply of natural rubber is barely keeping up with its demand, and such resultant gap is expected to be wider even more significantly in the future. Hevea brasiliensis is the only one qualified as a commercial source for natural rubber production. The large yield, high quality and easy manipulation of culture and harvest all count Hevea brasiliensis as a predominant natural rubber provider with valuable economical significance. However, the fact that the limited rubber supply due to the limited rubber plantation is far behind the ever-stringent demand makes it necessitated for exploration of new approaches aimed for significant increase of the yield of Hevea brasiliensis. Both latex regeneration and latex flow are the main limiting factor in the control of the rubber production, so insight into the mechanisms of them will greatly benefit the bio-breeding of high-yield strains and rubber tree plantation.

Key words: Hevea brasiliensis, latex regeneration, latex flow, ethylene, tapping