Topic

DIversity of LATEx properties in French Guiana trees

Funding

Labex Ceba 2015-2017

PI’s

Yannick ESTEVEZ
Christopher BARALOTTO

Scientific Partnership

• UMR ECOFOG, Kourou, French Guiana
• LCPO UMR5629, Bordeaux, France

Presentation of the project

DILATE is a multidisciplinary exploratory project at the frontier between biochemistry, ecology and ecophysiology to study natural latex produced by French Guianan woody plants. The main objective is to determine whether variation of physico-chemical properties in latex may be correlated to some inherent functional traits among contrasted plant communities. We will survey tens of species in diverse angiosperm lineages and across contrasting forest habitats to integrate for the first time physical and chemical properties of tropical plant latexes including: (i) NMR and IR spectroscopy (nature and structure of the polymer), (ii) electronic microscopy (particle size), (iii) water content, and (iv) proteins content. . The project will have high impact in terms of original databases generated for this potentially important but understudied plant trait, and for an important collaboration between chemical and ecological teams of the Labex who have not worked much together as yet