Latex Production in Rubber Trees

Latex was collected from 9-year-old trees of clone PB 260 at the Sembawa Research Centre belonging to the Indonesian Rubber Research Institute (Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia). Trees were tapped for three years using the S/2 d2 harvesting system (semi-spiral and tapping every two days) with or without application of 2.5% ethephon 12 times a year (ET 12/y). The dry cut length (DCL) was monitored after tapping for 3 years. Trees were categorized as slight- (<25% of DCL) or severe-TPD trees (>75%) according to the mean DCL for the last year of tapping. Nine trees were selected for further RNA sequencing: three slight-TPD trees under S/2 d2 (control), three slight-TPD trees under S/2 d2 ET 12/y, and three severe-TPD trees under S/2 d2 ET 12/y.