An Endophytic Taxol-Producing Fungus from Taxus media, Cladosporium cladosporioides MD2

Abstract

Fermentation processes using taxol-producing fungi other than Taxus spp. may be an alternative way to produce taxol, which is an important antitumor agent used widely in the clinic setting. In this study, a taxol-producing endophytic fungus strain MD2 was isolated from the inner bark of Taxus media. Strain MD2 produced taxol when grown in potato dextrose liquid medium. The fungal taxol-which was analyzed by ultraviolet, high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry-was shown to be identical to authentic taxol and 10-deacetylbaccatin III. Further analysis with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to show the chemical structure of the fungal taxol indicated that the fungal taxol produced an NMR spectrum identical to that of authentic taxol. Strain MD2 was identified as Cladosporium cladosporioides according to morphology of the fungal culture, characteristics of the spores, and analysis of 18S rDNA sequence. In addition, 10-deacetylbaccatin III-10-O-acetyl transferase gene of C. cladosporioides MD2 was cloned for the first time and was shown to share 99% identity with that of T. x media and 97% identity with that of T. wallichiana var. mairei.

Getting to the bottom of Taxol biosynthesis by fungi

“…Several other groups soon confirmed the findings in this ground-breaking publication and provided additional supporting evidence (Flores-Bustamante et al 2010). Microbial Taxol and taxane biosynthesis was found in several different genera of fungi, including Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Monochaetia, Pestlotia, Pestalotiopsis, Pithomyces, Penicillium and Xylaria, which were isolated from yew and non-Taxus plants (FloresBustamante et al 2010;Strobel et al 1996;Soca-Chafre et al 2011;Zhang et al 2009;Zhao et al 2009;Hoffman 2003). Recently, several reports have been published claiming that endophytic fungi contain genes previously identified in Taxus spp.…”

Plant Bioactive Metabolites and Drugs Produced by Endophytic Fungi of Spermatophyta

“…Chaetomella raphigera Terminalia arjuna [227] Cladosporium cladosporioides T. media [228] Cladosporium oxysporum Moringa oleifera [229] Cladosporium tenuissimum T. chinensis [223] Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Colletotrichum sp.…”

Production of valuable compounds by molds and yeasts

“…67 Cladosporium cladosporoides, an endophyte of the Taxus media tree, produced 800 μg l − 1 of taxol. 68 Metarhizium anisopiliae H-27, isolated from the tree Taxus chinensis, yielded 846 μg l − 1 . 69 Although a review of taxol production by endophytic fungi indicated that strain improvement had resulted in levels of only 0.4-1.0 mg l − 1 , 70 it was reported that another fungus, Alternaria alternate var.…”