
Plants with Allergen-Free Latex Now Easier
to Genetically EngineerBy Marcia
Wood May 26, 1999Guayule, a shrub that yields
high-quality, hypoallergenic natural latex, is now easier to genetically
engineer, thanks to Agricultural Research
Service scientists. Native to Texas, guayule (pronounced why-YOU-lee) can be processed to yield
a milky latex that is free of allergens that can cause severe reactions
including anaphylactic shock. An estimated 20 million Americans are allergic to
the latex in gloves, condoms and other products made from the most widely used
source, the Brazilian rubber tree. ARS plant physiologist Katrina Cornish leads the guayule research at the ARS
Western Regional Research Center in
Albany, Calif. Cornish, along with Christopher J.D. Mau and Mary H. Chapman at Albany, and
former Albany researcher Javier Castillón, developed a faster, easier
way to move new genes into guayule. Their work opens the way to giving
tomorrow's guayule new genes that could boost production of latex, or enhance
resistance to a root rot that can attack this otherwise disease-resistant
shrub. The scientists' procedure, patterned after one widely used by researchers
elsewhere with other plant species, relies on bathing pieces of guayule leaves
in a solution containing a re-worked form of a microbe, Agrobacterium
tumefaciens. The microbe, with the experimental genes inside, can slip
genes into guayule cells. The leaf pieces are then nurtured to form plantlets. Cornish's team is apparently the first to use this approach successfully
with guayule. An article in the current issue of ARS' Agricultural Research magazine
tells more. View it on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may99/rubb0599.htm ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief research agency. Scientific contact: Katrina
Cornish, ARS Western Regional Research Center, Albany, Calif., phone (510)
559-5950, fax (510) 559-5777, [email protected]. Story contacts Katrina Cornish Marcia A Wood U.S. Department of Agriculture | |