Abstract
Taxol is a cancer fighting drug that was initially isolated from the Pacific Yew. However, the isolation process is not very efficient and the tree is being excessively harvested and faces extinction. To synthetically make Taxol is an inefficient and costly process. If the precursor taxadiene-5 alpha-acetoxy-10 beta-ol can be produced with ease, then the synthetic modification of that precursor would be an efficient way to produce the potent cancer fighting drug. Several genes from the Pacific Yew were isolated and amplified so that they could be inserted into the moss Physcomitrella patens. Using competent E. coli cells as entry vectors, the genes were transferred so that the metabolic pathway responsible for taxadiene-5 alpha-acetoxy-10 beta-ol synthesis could be replicated in Physcomitrella patens. When the final transfer was made to the moss, a transient expression of the genes resulted in small amounts of product being obtained. After gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis, the chromatogram plots showed a few more promising peaks representing other Taxol precursors. With a permanent transfer to the moss, a much larger sample could be analyzed and more Taxol precursor could be produced.