Developments in taxol production through endophytic fungal biotechnology: a review

Paclitaxel (taxol), a diterpene natural compound was first extracted from the bark of yew trees. However, the method cannot meet its increasing demand on the market due to unprecedented yew cutting, low amounts of taxol production, the laborious and slow process of taxol extraction. Recently, efforts have been made to develop alternative means of taxol production. Microbial fermentation would be a promising method in the production of taxol at industrial scale. Fungal endophytes have the capacity to produce bioactive compounds and can independently synthesize secondary metabolites similar to those made by the host plants. Optimization of the fermentation culture is one of the most important strategies in increasing taxol production by endophytic fungi supplemented with several substances including carbon sources, nitrogen sources, precursors, inducer and the metabolic bypass inhibitors. Improved fermentation techniques and different biotechnological strategies such as gene cloning, gene transformation, mutations are widely being used on endophytic fungi in order to increase the productivity of the taxol. In this review, the different strategies used to produce taxol from endophytic fungal biotechnology have been discussed.