Molecular identification and characterization of the taxol-producing Colletotrichum gloeosporioides from Moringa oleifera Linn.

Abstract

Cancer is the uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells whose diagnosis and treatment continues to be an Achilles heel to the medical fraternity. In spite of several breakthroughs in cancer research, economically viable, safe treatment is still uncommon to the commoners. The unwarranted side effects of the available drugs and their high cost necessitate the search for novel, safer and cheaper bioactive molecules for the treatment. Taxol, a diterpenoid, alkaloid first isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia, is one of the better known anticancer drugs. The increased demand for taxol, coupled with its limited availability from the protected Pacific yew, led the researchers scrambling for alternate sources. Our present study details the isolation and molecular identification of the taxol-producing endophytic fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides from Moringa oleifera. Morphotyping and ITS-based identification were employed to confirm th identity of our organisms, while their potential for taxol production was evaluated at the genetic level using DBAT (10-deactylbaccatin III-10-O-acetyl transferase) and BAPT (C-13 phenylpropanoid side chain-CoA acyl transferase) genes. The fungal taxol produced in M1D medium was extracted, partially purified and confirmed using different spectral and analytical methods.