Rubber is usually made from petroleum or from the Asian rubber tree plant.
But rubber can also be produced from the guayule plant, a woody desert shrub
cultivated in the southwestern United States as a source of natural rubber
(latex), organic resins, and high-energy biofuel feedstock.

Using biotech tools, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) team has
developed an improved variety of guayule plant as a natural source of tire
rubber. The improved plants have unique DNA modifications that may translate
into increased rubber and biomass. More than 2,000 experimental guayule
plants have been delivered to their research partner, Bridgestone Americas,
for field testing.

In 2013, Bridgestone Americas and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) in Albany, California began a research agreement to evaluate ARS's
genetically improved guayule. The modification increased the plant's rubber
content dramatically in both laboratory and greenhouse trials. In a separate
project with Cornell University, the team sought guayule types that were not
in included ARS's collection. One source was the National Park Service's
Manzanar Historic Site in California, an internment camp for
Japanese-Americans during World War II where guayule plants were selected,
bred, cultivated and processed into natural rubber to aid the war effort.
The park donated seed from its heirloom plants.

[agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov]



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