The rubber trees were cultivated at the experimental farm of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (Danzhou, Hainan, China), and the study was approved by the experimental farm of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences. Field experiments were performed using mature, seven-year-old virgin (unexploited) rubber trees (Clone Reyan 7-33-97) that had never been tapped. Stimulation assays with exogenous ethephon were carried out according to the method previously described [44 , 45 (link)]. Briefly, 0.5% (w/w) ethephon (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) in water was applied to the bark below the half-spiral of the tapping cut. Water was used as the mock stimulation for the control samples. The trunks of the treated trees were wrapped with black plastic film around the tapping cut and stimulated for 8, 24 or 48 h, after which they were tapped for latex early in the morning on the same day. Each sample included three independent biological replicates, and each replicate comprised the latex collected from six trees.
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