Taxol tagged posts

Highlights •The cancer drug Taxol is a fungicide against wood-decaying fungi (WDF) in yew trees •Inside yew, a fungal endophyte produces Taxol and migrates to pathogen entry points •The endophyte sequesters Taxol in hydrophobic bodies (HBs); WDF induce their release •The HBs can coalesce to form extracellular barriers laced with fungicidal Taxol

The researchers found naturally occurring fungi in the yew’s vascular system act like an immune system to swarm a wound site and protect against invading pathogens. Taxol is harvested from yew bark for use as an important cancer-fighting drug, but efforts to make synthetic taxol in the lab have been unsuccessful.

Raizada said the findings might point drug makers to a less expensive synthetic process for making more of the substance...