Field trials are conducted in France in Spain

Within five years, German researchers hope to produce latex from a variety of Russian dandelion. This alternative resource may be strategic because rubber, single source of natural rubber today is threatened by a fungus. Natural rubber is simply irreplaceable. Not less than 40,000 common consumer products contain. Without it, more than latex gloves, of tubes of catheter or condoms, and especially more than pneumatic transportation which absorb not less than 70 of production. Well, synthetic rubber, invented 100 years ago, replaced his elder by several centuries for many applications. But it does not equal its properties of elasticity, power sticker, wear resistance, thermal and mechanical shock absorption. Natural rubber, obtained by coagulation and drying of the latex, represented in 2008 44 of world consumption of rubber (22 million tons).

Out of the sole source of natural rubber, hevea, grown to almost 80 per cent in Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia), is threatened by a fungus which devastated many of the forests of the Brazil, cradle of this tree. On the other hand, since 15 years, some latex proteins cause more allergies. Several laboratories are therefore looking for alternative plant resources. The most promising are the guayule (pronounced ouayoulé), a desert Bush South of the United States and the North of the Mexico, and the Kazakhstan Russian dandelion. Both were operated during the second world war, then abandoned because less profitable than rubber. Latex, this Milky liquid "seringueiros" Brazilian harvest in "bleeding" rubber, can be extracted from the bark of guayule and Russian dandelion roots. Thousands of other plants produce LaTeX, but of poor quality. For the time being, yields of competitors of the rubber remain insufficient, 2 to 10 times lower.

Transgenesis techniques

Hence the interest of the results published by researchers German Aachen Fraunhofer Institute and the University of Münster on genetically modified plants capable of producing four to five times more rubber than conventional Russian dandelion. One of the difficulties with dandelions is that latex clot spontaneously rubber, limiting the harvest. Researchers were able to disable this clotting enzyme, thus increasing yields. "It is out of the question to consider a full field of GMO-based culture," says Christian Schulze Gronover, responsible for research at the University of Münster. Transgenesis techniques we used to understand the coagulation of the latex rubber dry. We are now looking to replicate the genome of this new species of Dandelion by agronomic methods of selection, crossing and mutation. "It is considering a production on a large scale in five years. Prudent, Yves Poirier, researcher at the University of Lausanne, advance rather ten to fifteen years. "Research on plants are long, justifies." Seed, growth, harvest of new seeds take months.

In the meantime, the two universities are part of the 12 partners of the European project EU-Pearls, whose objective is to develop alternative resources for natural rubber in Europe and produce finished products. "We tested different varieties of guayule and Russian dandelion, said Yves Poirier. Field trials are conducted in France, in Spain. "The economic interests of secondary products such as inulin, sort from sugar of dandelions, is also studied.A similar consortium working in the United States on these same plants. An American company, Yulex is also specialized in the production of latex from the guayule, because of its hypoallergenic qualities. It manufactures surgical gloves and allergens, unlike the rubber latex condoms.