Translocation of isopentenyl pyrophosphate for Taxol biosynthesis in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei

Two inhibitors of metabolite translocators, sodium pyrophosphate (NaPP) and D,L-glyceraldehyde (DLG), respectively, were added into suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei at the early and late growth phases to investigate the translocation of isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) from cytoplasm to plastids for Taxol biosynthesis. NaPP and DLG hardly affected cell biomass and viability regardless of the phases of their introduction. The Taxol content varied less when NaPP or DLG was added at day 7 but decreased obviously when NaPP or DLG was introduced at day 14. It is thus inferred that NaPP and DLG inhibited Taxol biosynthesis by blocking IPP translocation at the late growth phase, suggesting that the translocation of IPP be involved only at the late growth phase of Taxus cells.     

Apoptotic cell death in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei

Apoptotic cell death was observed in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei under normal cultivation conditions by using microscopy, total DNA agarose gel electrophoresis and in situ end-labeling of fragmented DNA. The morphological and biochemical changes of cells occurred mainly in the non-dividing cell clusters, indicating that the T. chinensis cells died mainly by apoptosis. There exists a close relationship between cell apoptosis and Taxol formation. Taxol concentration increased with the increase in content of apoptotic cells and reached a maximum (14.2 mg l^–1) after 23 days of culture, corresponding to a maximum ratio of apoptotic to total cells of about 13%.     

A model for signal transduction in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei induced by an oligosaccharide from Fusarium oxysporum

A non-linear cascade model is proposed to describe the signal transduction pathway in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei induced by an oligosaccharide from Fusarium oxysporum. The oxidative burst intensity, which was defined as the amount of the free radicals including superoxide anion (O² ), H₂O₂ and OH^– and measured by ESR spectrometry, was used as the signal characteristic and the theory of electronic signal transduction cascade was then applied to derive the initial model. The model shows that the signal transduction cascade process is composed of three cascade nets, represented by the phosphorylation of a G-protein, activation of an ion channel and phospholipase C, and phosphorylation of protein kinase C. The three reactions were calculated as beginning at 30.5, 48.8 and 141.4 min after elicitation, and the maximum variation rates of the signal intensity in the three nets occurred at 43.2, 80.6 and 192.6 min, respectively. The validity of the model predictions was verified by experimental data.     

A structured kinetic model for suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei induced by an oligosaccharide from Fusarium oxysporum

A structured kinetic model was established to describe the process of Taxol formation in suspension cultures of Taxus chinesis var. mairei induced by an oligosaccharide from Fusarium oxysporum. In this model, the role of intracellular starch as a storage carbon source had to be taken into account. Substrate uptake, culture growth, cell respiration, and secondary metabolites, predicted by the model, agreed with those obtained experimentally. The effective factors of oligosaccharide elicitation, _e,j, defined as the ratio of the parameter values in the system with oligosaccharide to those in control, reflected the effects of the oligosaccharide on cell growth and Taxol production.     

Salicylic acid-induced taxol production and isopentenyl pyrophosphate biosynthesis in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei

The influences of salicylic acid (SA) on taxol production and isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) biosynthesis pathways in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis var. mairei were investigated by adding SA and mevastatin (MVS), a highly specific inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase in the mevalonate pathway for IPP biosynthesis, into the culture systems. The cell death and taxol production were induced upon the introduction of SA, and 20mg/l was proved to be the optimal SA concentration in terms of the less damage to Taxus cells and marked activation of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL). In the coexistence of SA (20mg/l) and MVS (100 nmol/l), the taxol content (1.626 mg/g dry wt) was higher than that (0.252 mg/g dry wt) of the MVS-treated system but almost equal to that (1.581 mg/g dry wt) of the SA-treated system. It is thus inferred that the activated non-mevalonate pathway should be responsible for the formation of IPP in taxol biosynthesis in the presence of SA.     

Study on Enhanced Production of Taxol from Taxus chinensis var. mairei in Biphasic-liquid Culture

The effects of precursor feeding and mixed sugar supplements on the growth and taxol production of Taxus chinensis var. mairei Cheng et Fu in the biphasic-liquid culture were studied. Precursor feeding (phenylanine, benzamide and sodium acetate) and mixed sugars (maltose and sucrose) resulted in significant increase of taxol production not only in the monophasic-liquid culture but also in the biphasic-liquid culture of T. chinensis var. mairei. The synergistic function of precursor feeding on day 10 and mixed sugars on day 11 in the biphasic-liquid culture revealed more significant increase of taxol production, which was four times that of the control (the monophasic-liquid culture without precursors or mixed sugars).     

Intermittent maltose feeding enhances paclitaxel production in suspension culture of Taxus chinensis cells

High paclitaxel production (26 mg l^–1) was achieved through the intermittent feeding of 3, 1, and 2% (w/v) sucrose at days 0, 7, and 21, respectively, to a suspension culture of Taxus chinensis cells. Intermittent feedings of 1 and 2% (w/v) maltose at days 7 and 21, respectively, to the culture increased the paclitaxel production up to 67 mg l^–1.     

Cell death unlikely contributes to taxol production in fungal elicitor-induced cell suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis

Cell suspension cultures ofTaxus chinensis, with 20, 40 and 100 mg fungal elicitor l^–1 from Aspergillus niger, underwent rapid cell death after 24 h, which was about 2, 3.7 and 5-fold of that of the control. At the same time, Taxol production was increased, respectively, to about 5, 8 and 3-fold of that of the control. Inhibition of phenolics biosynthesis resulted in a 150% increase in cell death but a 54% decrease in Taxol production compared with 40 mg elicitor l^–1 alone. O₂-free N₂ inhibited cell death but had little effect on Taxol production as induced by 40 mg fungal elicitor l^–1.     

Enhancement of paclitaxel production by abscisic acid in cell suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis

Addition of 5 mg abscisic acid l^–1 after 12 days' growth of Taxus chinensis suspension culture gave the greatest paclitaxel accumulation at 11 mg l^–1, which was almost 5 times that of the control culture. The highest paclitaxel production, 18 mg l^–1, was obtained using 5 mg abscisic acid l^–1 and 20 mg methyl jasmonate l^–1.     

悬浮培养南方红豆杉细胞的紫杉醇生物合成路径中诱导子的作用位点

作者研究开发出一种基于分析中间响应模式确定悬浮培养诱导子作用位点的新方法.研究结果表明,一个诱导子的作用位点存在于浓度变化方向相反的相邻两个中间代谢物之间;该方法的有效性在悬浮培养南方红豆杉(Taxus chinensis(Pilg.)Rehd.var.mairei(Lemee et Levl.)Cheng et L. K.Fu)生物合成紫杉醇过程中得以证实;经确定,甲基茉莉酮酸、硝酸根和柠檬酸铵的作用位点在baccatinⅢ至10-去乙酰基紫杉醇之间;水杉酸、花生四烯酸的作用位点存在3种可能性,即增强10-去乙酰基紫杉醇的合成、防止紫杉醇和cephalomannine的降解.该方法对指导诱导子配伍优化紫杉醇生产具有指导意义.     

Repeated elicitation enhances taxane production in suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis in bioreactors

Methyl jasmonate added at 100 M on days 8, 14 and 20 to cultures of Taxus chinensis growing in flasks and 1 l airlift bioreactors improved taxuyunnanine C (TC) production by 50–60% in flasks and by about 80% in airlift bioreactors compared with single addition of 100 M methyl jasmonate on day 8. The final TC production in the airlift bioreactors reached 565±47 mg l^–1, which is the highest reported for taxoid production in a bioreactor.     

Enhanced paclitaxel production induced by the combination of elicitors in cell suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis

Taxus chinensis suspension cells were cultured in the modified Gamborg's B5 medium. Addition of 50 mg chitosan l^–1, 60 M methyl jasmonate and 30 M Ag⁺ resulted in the greatest paclitaxel production, at 25 mg l^–1 in the cultures, being almost 40 times higher than that of the control culture, 10 times higher than that of the culture exposed to Ag⁺, 6 times higher than that of the culture elicited by chitosan and almost double that of the culture elicited by methyl jasmonate.     

Improved Taxol production by combination of inducing factors in suspension cell culture of Taxus baccata

To date enormous attempts have been devoted to improve Taxol production exploiting various methodologies from bioprocess engineering to biotechnological and synthetic approaches. We have developed a 2-stage suspension cell culture of Taxus baccata L. using modified B5 medium in order to improve cell growth as well as productivity. After callus induction and cell line selection, B5 medium was supplemented with vanadyl sulfate (0.1 mg/l), silver nitrate (0.3 mg/l) and cobalt chloride (0.25 mg/l) at the first day of stage I culture to maximize cell growth. This medium was further supplemented with sucrose (1%) and ammonium citrate (50 mg/l) on day 10 and sucrose (1%) and phenylalanine (0.1 mM) on day 20 (i.e., biomass growth medium). At stage II (day 25), two different concentrations of several elicitors such as methyl jasmonate (10 or 20 mg/l), salicylic acid (50 or 100 mg/l) and fungal elicitor (25 or 50 mg/l) were added to the biomass growth medium with the aim of improving cellular productivity. For morphological analysis, microscopic inspection was carried out during cultivation. Cell-associated and extracellular amount of Taxol were detected and measured using HPLC methodology. At stage I, overall Taxol amount of biomass growth medium was 13.75 mg/l (i.e., 5.6-fold higher than that of untreated B5 control). At stage II, treated cells with methyl jasmonate (10 mg/l), salicylic acid (100 mg/l) and fungal elicitor (25 mg/l) produced the highest amount of Taxol (39.5 mg/l), which is 16-fold higher than that of untreated B5 control (2.45 mg/l). Microscopic analyses of Taxus cells in suspension cultures showed various positional auto-fluorescence showing direct correlation with Taxol production. Our studies revealed that intervallic supplementation of B5 medium with combination of biomass growth factors at stage I and mixture of elicitors at stage II could significantly increase Taxol production. Thus, we suggest that the exploitation of this methodology may improve the production of Taxol since demands for Taxol pharmaceuticals are increasingly growing and resource paucities have limited its direct harvesting from Taxus trees.     

Improved paclitaxel accumulation in cell suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis by brassinolide

When brassinolide was added at 17 ng l^–1 to Taxus chinensis cell suspension cultures, the paclitaxel content was increased by over 100% to 580 g g^–1 dry weight. Brassinolide may therefore be a novel regulator of paclitaxel biosynthesis.     

Isolation of differential genes in suspension cultures of Taxus cuspidata induced by additional taxol

Addition of taxol into suspension cultures of Taxus cuspidata induced cell apoptosis, which was confirmed by gel electrophoresis of the DNA ladders indicating the progressive delineation of fragmented nuclear DNA (nDNA) into distinct bodies. The additional taxol not only changed the microtubule assembly of cells, but also affected the gene expression. Fourteen cDNA fragments, named as TIGT9-22, were isolated after addition of taxol and their GenBank accession numbers were given as BF704560-BF704573, respectively. Among them, TIGT13 and TIGT21 were apparently homogeneous with apbE and carbamoylphosphate synthetase, respectively. Other cDNA fragments showed no significant analogy with the known sequences in GenBank.     

Alkaloid production by plant cell cultures of Holarrhena antidysenterica: II. Effect of precursor feeding and cultivation in stirred tank bioreactor

Precursor feeding strategy for increasing the yield of conessine, a steroidal alkaloid of Holarrhena antidysenterica, was established in cell suspension culture. A total of 50 mg/L added cholesterol was converted into 43 mg/L of alkaloid, 90% of which constituted the conessine. By applying the precursor feeding policy to the cell suspension culture in modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, a total of 143 mg/L of alkaloid was produced in 8 days. In this way the alkaloid content of the cells was increased more than six times compared to that obtained in the standard MS medium. The steps leading to biotransformation of cholesterol into alkaloids were unaffected by phosphate. The shake flask data were successfully transferred to a bench scale 6-L stirred tank bioreactor in which the specific biosynthetic rate of alkaloid production was 110 mg/100 g dry cell weight per day, about 160 times higher than that of whole plant.     

南方红豆杉根际解有机磷细菌的鉴定及其解磷特性和促生作用研究

以分离自南方红豆杉根际的1株解有机磷细菌JYD-4为研究对象,对其进行分类鉴定;采用钼锑抗比色法研究JYD-4菌种在不同碳源、氮源和pH条件下的解有机磷能力;提取JYD-4菌株磷酸酯酶,测定在不同温度和pH作用下的磷酸酯酶活性;采用温室盆栽试验研究JYD-4菌株对南方红豆杉实生苗的促生长作用。结果表明:(1)分离自南方红豆杉根际的解有机磷细菌JYD-4为嗜麦寡养单胞菌(Stenotrophomonas maltophilia)。(2)菌株JYD-4在卵黄固体培养基上产生的解磷圈与菌落直径比为2.01,在液体培养基中的解磷量为72.38mg/L。(3)菌株JYD-4解磷最适碳源为葡萄糖,最适氮源为牛肉膏,最适pH 7.0。(4)菌株JYD-4产生的磷酸酯酶主要为胞内酶,该酶在20℃~65℃温度范围均能发挥较高酶活性,但仅能在pH 9.0条件下产生较高酶活性。(5)菌株JYD-4接种能够明显提高南方红豆杉实生苗的苗高、地径和生物量。研究表明,嗜麦寡养单胞菌JYD-4是一株高效解有机磷细菌,主要分泌碱性磷酸酯酶,对南方红豆杉具有明显的促生长作用;该研究为南方红豆杉微生物肥料的开发提供了优良的菌种资源,为该菌种的进一步开发应用提供了理论依据。     

Evaluation ofl-lactic acid production in batch, fed-batch, and continuous cultures ofRhizopus sp. MK-96-1196 using an airlift bioreactor

Various processes which producel-lactic acid using ammonia-tolerant mutant strain,Rhizopus sp. MK-96-1196, in a 3 L airlift bioreactor were evaluated. When the fed-batch culture was carried out by keeping the glucose concentration at 30 g/l, more than 140 g/l ofl-lactic acid was produced with a product yield of 83%. In the case of the batch culture with 200 g/l of initial glucose concentration, 121 g/L ofl-lactic acid was obtained but the low product yield based on the amount of glucose consumed. In the case of a continuous culture, 1.5 g/l/h of the volumetric productivity with a product yield of 71% was achieved at dilution rate of 0.024 h⁻¹. Basis on these results three processes were evaluated by simple variable cost estimation including carbon source, steam, and waste treatment costs. The total variable costs of the fed-batch and continuous cultures were 88% and 140%, respectively, compared to that of batch culture. The fed-batch culture with highl-lactic acid concentration and high product yield decreased variable costs, and was the best-suited for the industrial production ofl-lactic acid.     

Isolation of polymorphic microsatellite loci in Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R.Br. ex Mart. var. boninensis Becc., an endemic palm species of the oceanic Bonin Islands, Japan

A set of microsatellites markers were developed for Livistona chinensis var. boninensis, an endemic palm tree of the Bonin Islands. We obtained 123 sequences containing unique microsatellites from an enriched library. Twelve loci were screened for their feasibility using 32 trees. They showed polymorphisms with two to nine alleles per locus. No significant deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was observed for 11 loci. No genotypic disequilibrium was detected between any two of the loci. Total exclusionary powers for the first and the second parents were 0.978774 and 0.998987, respectively. These markers will allow us to investigate the gene flow within/among populations of the species.