来自南Illinois大学和Washington大学的科学家开发出一种转基因苔藓（Phsycomitrella patens）能够积累高水平的紫杉醇，一种有效的抗癌药。紫杉醇的商品名为Taxol，用于肺癌、乳腺癌、卵巢癌和晚期Kaposi氏肿瘤。紫杉醇由紫杉（Taxus brevifolia）中分离获得，可以通过扰乱细胞分裂中的微管解聚从而抑制癌细胞增殖。

由于紫杉中的紫杉醇含量过低，研究人员想通过化学方法合成这种物质。应用细菌和酵母的转基因表达系统可以生产紫杉醇前体，但这些方法不适合大规模商业化生产。现在，药用紫杉醇前体是从欧洲紫杉的针状叶中分离出来的。

比起其他植物表达系统，转基因苔藓可以积累更高水平的紫杉醇前体taxa-4（5）,11（12）-diene（占组织鲜重的0.05%），虽然这比使用酵母或细菌表达系统的生产量低，但是科学家指出微生物的转录后修饰机制可能影响紫杉醇前体的活性。（生物谷Bioon.com）

生物谷推荐原始出处：

Transgenic Research DOI：10.1007/s11248-009-9252-5

Production of taxa-4（5）,11（12）-diene by transgenic Physcomitrella patens

Aldwin Anterola1 , Erin Shanle1, Pierre-Fran?ois Perroud2 and Ralph Quatrano2

（1）  Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
（2）  Department of Biology, Washington University, St Louis, MO 63130, USA

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.

http://jingda17.net/main/index.asp