%0 Journal Article
%T Screening and Characterization of Fungal Taxol from Leaf Spot Fungi
%J -
%D 2017
%X Plants are the tremendous source for the discovery of new biotherapeutic products with medicinal importance in drug development. Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a plant-derived natural product that exhibits potential anticancer activity. Taxol binding specifically with ¦Â-tubulin and prevents depolymerisation during the process of cell division in cancer cells as anticancer property. This billion dollar drug was first isolated in trace amounts (1kg taxol recovered from 13,500kg of bark) from the bark of Yew tree ( Taxus brevifolia), but huge drawback is production rate was low and shortage of yew trees. Currently, endophytic fungi and pathogenic fungi are the best alternative source for the taxol production. In this study, twenty-seven different plants were used for infected leaves collection from Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) campus. Fungi were isolated from infected leaf spots on PDA plates using hyphal tip method. All the isolated fungi were subjected to pathogenicity tests, and positive pathogenic fungi were re-isolated. Totally eighteen fungal plant pathogens were isolated. The positive isolates identified using morphological and molecular characters. All the positive pathogens are screened preliminarily for taxol production. Among the eighteen isolates, three fungi were produced taxol. The test fungus Phoma moricola, isolated from Bauhinia tomentosa was the first report for Taxol production. The amount of taxol produced by Phoma moricola was quantified by HPLC. The maximum amount of taxol produced was found to be 302¦Ìg/L.
%K Paclitaxel (Taxol)
%K Leaf Spot Fungus
%K Phoma moricola
%U http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=217&doi=10.11648/j.bio.20170506.11