Natural rubber is a kind of indispensable biopolymers with great use and strategic importance in human society. However, its production relies almost exclusively on rubber-producing plants Hevea brasiliensis, which have high requirements for growth conditions, and the mechanism of natural rubber biosynthesis remains largely unknown. In the past two decades, details of the rubber chain polymerization and proteins involved in natural rubber biosynthesis have been investigated intensively. Meanwhile, omics and other advanced biotechnologies bring new insight into rubber production and development of new rubber-producing plants. This review summarizes the achievements of the past two decades in understanding the biosynthesis of natural rubber, especially the massive information obtained from the omics analyses. Possibilities of natural rubber biosynthesis in vitro or in genetically engineered microorganisms are also discussed.
Keywords: HRT1-REF bridging protein (HRBP); Hevea brasiliensis; Hevea rubber transferase 1 (HRT1); cis-prenyltransferase (CPT); natural rubber biosynthesis; rubber elongation factor (REF); rubber particles; small rubber particle protein (SRPP).