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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Production of taxa-4(5),11(12)-diene by transgenic Physcomitrella patens
Aldwin Anterola1, Erin Shanle, Pierre-François Perroud
1Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA. anterola@siu.edu
Abstract:
Taxadiene synthase gene from Taxus brevifolia was constitutively expressed in the moss Physcomitrella patens using a ubiquitin promoter to produce taxa-4(5),11(12)-diene, the precursor of the anticancer drug paclitaxel. In stable moss transformants, taxa-4(5),11(12)-diene was produced up to 0.05% fresh weight of tissue, without significantly affecting the amounts of the endogenous diterpenoids (ent-kaurene and 16-hydroxykaurane). Unlike higher plants that had been genetically modified to produce taxa-4(5),11(12)-diene, transgenic P. patens did not exhibit growth inhibition due to alteration of diterpenoid metabolic pools. Thus we propose that P. patens is a promising alternative host for the biotechnological production of paclitaxel and its precursors.
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