From forest to plantation: a brief history of the rubber tree

Suryanarayanan, T. S.; Azevedo, João Lúcio de

doi:10.1007/s43539-023-00071-7

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Successful rubber plantations were established in southeast Asia after 1876 CE (Coomes & Barham, 1994), when the English explorer Henry Alexander Wickham trafficked 70,000 seeds of H. brasiliensis tree from Santarém to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in England (Grandin, 2009). Of the 70,000 seeds exported, only 2000 germinated in the Botanic Gardens (Suryanarayanan & Azevedo, 2023). The seeds were sent to British Southeastern Asian colonies for cultivation.…”

Section: Post‐colonial Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous and colonial influences on Amazonian forests

Nascimento,

Aukes,

McMichael

2024

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact StatementGlobal climate models that incorporate carbon sources and sinks usually consider that forest uptake of carbon is in a state of equilibrium. Both historical and paleoecological records suggest that this is commonly not the case for Amazonia. Here, the impacts of colonial practices on Amazonian Indigenous peoples and forests are reviewed. Human activities affect forests' successional stages, trajectories, and species composition. By increasing the spatial coverage of paleoecological records that focus on pre‐ and post‐Columbian periods, the long‐term interactions between humans and Amazonian forests and their role in affecting Earth's climate may be better understood.SummaryLegacy effects left by the activities of Indigenous people in Amazonia are well known. Although severe, widespread, and recently occurring, the impacts left post‐1492 CE have been less investigated. We review the impact of colonial practices on Indigenous peoples and Amazonian forests. We suggest that forests comprise the sum of their past events, in a mosaic of different cumulative successional trajectories depending on the type, frequency, intensity, and timing of human influence. In regions with a history of minimal human influence, old‐growth species sensitive to fire would be the dominant landscape. In regions with high pre‐Columbian and low colonial influence, old‐growth forests carrying pre‐Columbian ecological legacies would be prevalent. Regions occupied by Indigenous groups post‐1492 CE would also carry similar ecological legacies. In regions influenced by the Jesuits, mid‐successional forests are expected to be enriched with cacao trees. In regions of latex extraction during the rubber boom, mid‐growth forests would present high abundances of early and mid‐successional species and depletion of some species. In deforested areas, we expect early successional forests with influence of exotic useful species. This patchwork of history probably plays a large role in shaping today's forests, and the biodiversity and carbon dynamics documented within them. Paleoecological work focusing on the last millennium, although scarce, has the potential to detect these mosaics of past human influence, and they should be considered when estimating forest ages and successional stages across the basin.

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Section: Post‐colonial Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous and colonial influences on Amazonian forests

Nascimento,

Aukes,

McMichael

2024

Plants People Planet

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“…Therefore, breeding elite rubber clones with high yield and disease resistance is a reliable strategy to assure global NR security. However, the highly heterozygous nature, long juvenile phase, and prolonged period required for evaluation of mature traits are strong limitations confronted in conventional rubber breeding [ 9 ]. Transgenic technology has opened a gate to speeding-up the process of rubber breeding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overexpression of HbGRF4 or HbGRF4-HbGIF1 Chimera Improves the Efficiency of Somatic Embryogenesis in Hevea brasiliensis

Luo,

Zhang,

Zhou

et al. 2024

IJMS

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Transgenic technology is a crucial tool for gene functional analysis and targeted genetic modification in the para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). However, low efficiency of plant regeneration via somatic embryogenesis remains a bottleneck of successful genetic transformation in H. brasiliensis. Enhancing expression of GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR 4 (GRF4)-GRF-INTERACTING FACTOR 1 (GIF1) has been reported to significantly improve shoot and embryo regeneration in multiple crops. Here, we identified endogenous HbGRF4 and HbGIF1 from the rubber clone Reyan7-33-97, the expressions of which dramatically increased along with somatic embryo (SE) production. Intriguingly, overexpression of HbGRF4 or HbGRF4-HbGIF1 markedly enhanced the efficiency of embryogenesis in two H. brasiliensis callus lines with contrasting rates of SE production. Transcriptional profiling revealed that the genes involved in jasmonic acid response were up-regulated, whereas those in ethylene biosynthesis and response as well as the S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferase activity were down-regulated in HbGRF4- and HbGRF4-HbGIF1-overexpressing H. brasiliensis embryos. These findings open up a new avenue for improving SE production in rubber tree, and help to unravel the underlying mechanisms of HbGRF4-enhanced somatic embryogenesis.

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“…Rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is a tropical tree native to South America; it belongs to the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae) and provides the sole commercial source of NR. In the year 1876, Wickham fetched 70,000 rubber tree seeds from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and planted them in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [5]. Later, rubber plantations spread to many British colonies, including Borneo, Myanmar, and India, and supplied more than 90% of the global demand for rubber [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the year 1876, Wickham fetched 70,000 rubber tree seeds from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and planted them in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [5]. Later, rubber plantations spread to many British colonies, including Borneo, Myanmar, and India, and supplied more than 90% of the global demand for rubber [5,6]. However, at present, no plantations exist in the Amazon rainforest, and rubber can only be tapped from wild trees that grow sporadically in the rainforest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Genome Sequencing and Natural Rubber Biosynthesis in Rubber-Producing Plants

Tan,

Cao,

Tang

et al. 2023

CIMB

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Natural rubber (cis-1,4-polyisoprene, NR) is an important raw material utilized widely in the manufacturing of medical, agricultural, and industrial products. Rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and several alternative rubber-producing plants (Taraxacum kok-saghyz, Lactuca sativa, and Parthenium argentatum) have the capability to produce high-quality NR. With the progress of genome sequencing, similar rubber biosynthesis pathways have been discovered among different rubber-producing plant species. NR is synthesized and stored in rubber particles, which are specialized organelles comprising a hydrophobic NR core surrounded by a lipid monolayer and membrane-bound proteins. The rubber transferase complex is considered to be the pivotal enzyme involved in catalyzing NR biosynthesis. However, the exact compositions of the RT complex in rubber-producing plants remain elusive and poorly understood. Here, we review the progress of genome sequencing, natural rubber biosynthesis, and the components of the RT complex in rubber-producing plants. We emphasize that identifying the detailed components of the RT complex holds great significance for exploring the mechanism of NR biosynthesis and accelerating molecular breeding in rubber-producing plants.

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From forest to plantation: a brief history of the rubber tree

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

Indigenous and colonial influences on Amazonian forests

Indigenous and colonial influences on Amazonian forests

Overexpression of HbGRF4 or HbGRF4-HbGIF1 Chimera Improves the Efficiency of Somatic Embryogenesis in Hevea brasiliensis

Advances in Genome Sequencing and Natural Rubber Biosynthesis in Rubber-Producing Plants

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