An overview of guayule research and development in Mexico

Shrubs grown at Navidad, Nuevo Leon, were identified with up to 21% rubber content. This may be the result of plants been subject to high levels of soil water stress, or it may be genetically inherited. The rubber quality was also affected by environmental factors, as shown by multimodal molecular weight curves from determined by gel permeation chromatography. Plants from the Mapimi site were identified as diploids which are sexually reproducing, compared to other ploidy levels that reproduce by apomixis, a form of clonal propagation. This is significant because diploids population are not known to occur in other regions of the world, and are useful for plant breeding. Irrigation treatments significantly influenced rubber and resin yield by increasing the plant biomass. However, rubber and resin content were not affected.