Anticancer remedy drugs derived from the bark of yew trees

Paclitaxel (Taxol) is an anticancer remedy derived from the bark of yew tree. It is generally used for the treatment of ovarian and breast cancers. However, destructive methods for its production from natural resources together with currently used low-yielding industrial production systems via total synthesis or semi-synthesis have led researchers to invent a robust alternative biological production system using biotechnological approaches. The first committed step in Taxol biosynthesis pathway is the production of taxadiene from geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) catalyzed by the plastid-localized enzyme taxadiene synthase (TXS). In this research, we attempted to evaluate the effects of the production of the first critical enzyme in Taxol biosynthesis pathway on Lycopersicon esculentum plant through the expression of taxadiene synthase gene under the control of a dexamethasone-inducible promoter. To achieve this goal, Lycopersicon esculentum were transformed with the construct pTA-TXS-His using Agrobacterium tumefaciens AGL1 and following the tissue culture method. The transformed plants were confirmed using the PCR method amplifying an 800 bp fragment of the cloned gene. Upon our findings, we propose that implementation of the biotechnological strategies can be utilized for production of components of Taxol biosynthesis. Keywords : anticancer remedy, yew trees, natural drug