Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production
Fungal Taxol acquired lots of attention in the last few decades mainly because of the hope that fungi could be manipulated more easily than yew trees to scale up the production level of this valuable anticancer drug. Several researchers have studied diverse factors to enhance fungal Taxol production...
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doaj-1032b97a49c64ee9a9318894f34564862020-11-24T21:57:24ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Microbiology1664-302X2018-03-01910.3389/fmicb.2018.00353337622Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol ProductionSameh S. M. Soliman0Sameh S. M. Soliman1Sameh S. M. Soliman2Manish N. Raizada3Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab EmiratesFaculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, Zagazig, EgyptDepartment of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, CanadaDepartment of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, CanadaFungal Taxol acquired lots of attention in the last few decades mainly because of the hope that fungi could be manipulated more easily than yew trees to scale up the production level of this valuable anticancer drug. Several researchers have studied diverse factors to enhance fungal Taxol production. However, up to date fungal Taxol production has never been enhanced to the commercial level. We have hypothesized that optimization of fungal Taxol production may require clear understanding of the fungal habitat in its original host plant. One major feature shared by all fungal endophytes is that they are located in the internal plant tissues where darkness is prominent; hence here the effect of light on fungal Taxol production was tested. Incubation of Taxol-producing endophytic SSM001 fungus in light prior to inoculation in Taxol production culture media showed dramatic loss of Taxol accumulation, significant reduction in Taxol-containing resin bodies and reduction in the expression of genes known to be involved in Taxol biosynthesis. The loss of Taxol production was accompanied by production of dark green pigments. Pigmentation is a fungal protection mechanism which is photoreceptor mediated and induced by light. Opsin, a known photoreceptor involved in light perception and pigment production, was identified in SSM001 by genome sequencing. SSM001 opsin gene expression was induced by white light. The results from this study indicated that the endophytic fungus SSM001 required the dark habitat of its host plant for Taxol production and hence this biosynthetic pathway shows a negative response to light.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00353/fullfungal Taxollightopsinpigmentationexpression |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Sameh S. M. Soliman Sameh S. M. Soliman Sameh S. M. Soliman Manish N. Raizada |
spellingShingle |
Sameh S. M. Soliman Sameh S. M. Soliman Sameh S. M. Soliman Manish N. Raizada Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production Frontiers in Microbiology fungal Taxol light opsin pigmentation expression |
author_facet |
Sameh S. M. Soliman Sameh S. M. Soliman Sameh S. M. Soliman Manish N. Raizada |
author_sort |
Sameh S. M. Soliman |
title |
Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production |
title_short |
Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production |
title_full |
Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production |
title_fullStr |
Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production |
title_full_unstemmed |
Darkness: A Crucial Factor in Fungal Taxol Production |
title_sort |
darkness: a crucial factor in fungal taxol production |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
issn |
1664-302X |
publishDate |
2018-03-01 |
description |
Fungal Taxol acquired lots of attention in the last few decades mainly because of the hope that fungi could be manipulated more easily than yew trees to scale up the production level of this valuable anticancer drug. Several researchers have studied diverse factors to enhance fungal Taxol production. However, up to date fungal Taxol production has never been enhanced to the commercial level. We have hypothesized that optimization of fungal Taxol production may require clear understanding of the fungal habitat in its original host plant. One major feature shared by all fungal endophytes is that they are located in the internal plant tissues where darkness is prominent; hence here the effect of light on fungal Taxol production was tested. Incubation of Taxol-producing endophytic SSM001 fungus in light prior to inoculation in Taxol production culture media showed dramatic loss of Taxol accumulation, significant reduction in Taxol-containing resin bodies and reduction in the expression of genes known to be involved in Taxol biosynthesis. The loss of Taxol production was accompanied by production of dark green pigments. Pigmentation is a fungal protection mechanism which is photoreceptor mediated and induced by light. Opsin, a known photoreceptor involved in light perception and pigment production, was identified in SSM001 by genome sequencing. SSM001 opsin gene expression was induced by white light. The results from this study indicated that the endophytic fungus SSM001 required the dark habitat of its host plant for Taxol production and hence this biosynthetic pathway shows a negative response to light. |
topic |
fungal Taxol light opsin pigmentation expression |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00353/full |
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