Rubber from dandelions: Key components in formation of rubber identified

Dandelions deliver a desirable product: rubber. This is why the robust and undemanding plant has become the focus of attention of the rubber-producing industry. But how is rubber, contained in the plant's white milky fluid, actually formed? 

A team of scientists has now identified proteins, which play a key role in the production of rubber in the plant. Thus a biotechnological production of rubber comes closer.

The milky fluid containing the rubber is produced in special cells in the dandelion. Responsible for the formation -- the biosynthesis -- of the rubber is a protein complex located on the surface of so-called rubber particles. These globular particles are filled with polyisoprene, the main component of rubber, and are surrounded by a protective coating.

As the researchers at Münster University, the Münster branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, the Technische Universität München (TUM) and TRM Ltd. (York, UK) demonstrated, using the example of Russian dandelion, Taraxacum kok-saghyz, there is one special protein (a so-called rubber transferase activator) which plays a key role. If the formation of the protein is prevented -- in other words, if it doesn't exist in the plant -- then no rubber is formed.

The scientists assume that the protein is necessary for the formation of the rubber-producing protein complex. A second study identifies a further important protein which plays a key role in the formation of the long polyisoprene chains. These polymers give the rubber its typical properties -- its elasticity and resilience.