Genetic Tweak Turns Dandelion Into Latex Machine

You know the milky gooey sap that appears on the stem of a dandelion after you pop the flower head off with your thumb? It's jam packed with natural rubber.

And not just any natural rubber, but one that exhibits all the elasticity of natural rubber from other, more commonly used sources, but that includes none of the impurities and contaminants of latex increasingly documented to cause severe and sometimes lethal allergic reactions in some individuals.

ABC (Australia) reports that German scientists have achieved a breakthrough in genetics resulting in a variety of dandelion whose sap doesn't solidify quite as quickly. Consequently, a five-fold greater volume of natural rubber could be extracted from the plants as compared to from the unadulterated dandelions.

Typically, the process of polymerization governs the transformation of dandelion sap from liquid to solid upon contact with air. But the introduction of a virus into the dandelion DNA neutralized the genetic code that governed this process. The result was a dandelion whose sap remained in liquid form, allowing extraction with a simple, low velocity centrifuge.

This development could result in transforming the dandelion from widely maligned front lawn nuisance to a renewable source of a valuable and necessary raw material.

Photo courtesy of Danel Solabarrieta, via Wikimedia Commons