Team:SDU-Denmark

Doesn't rubber come from trees?

Let your eyes (and mouse) wander to these trees to discover our ideas on how to help the environment and change the future of rubber-production. Take a look at our short project description below.

The growing demand for natural rubber causes deforestation of the rainforest or occupation of arable lands, all due to the founding of new plantations. If producing rubber by bacteria succeeds, production of natural rubber will not be limited to the regions where the rubber tree can grow but can be done even in barren lands.

Our project aims to make a common bacteria able to produce natural rubber while grown under controlled conditions. Natural rubber is composed of molecules, each consisting of the substance IPP linked together like a chain. The common bacteria that we use already possesses the ability to produce the IPP, but it lacks the enzyme to connect the IPP links together into a chain. Through this project we introduce the enzyme that the rubber tree has for connecting the links, into the bacteria. Furthermore we manipulate the bacteria into producing more of the IPP links.