Production of a high value taxol from cultured Taxus baccata stem cell: Improved platform and strategies

Paclitaxel is one of the most effective anti-cancer drugs ever developed. The natural source of taxol is the inner bark of several Taxus species, but it accumulates at a very low concentration and with a prohibitively high cost of extraction. Another problem is that the use of inner bark of taxol production implies the destruction of yew trees. Plant suspension culture present a sustainable, controllable and environmentally friendly tool to produce high-value secondary metabolites at industrial level. p-fluorophenylalanine (PFP) is an analogue of phenylalanine which is used instead of phenylalanine is a precursor of taxol in plastidial pathway of taxol and a competitive inhibitor of phenyalalanine ammonia lyase (PAL). More phenylalanine production will be accumulated by ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) -treated and PFP-resistant mutant cell lines. Platform of plating system has a high efficiency for selection of Taxus baccata mutant stem cells. It is aimed to increase taxol production with extra phenylalanine, as an essential precursor of taxol.