Comparative transcriptome analysis of a taxol-producing endophytic fungus, Aspergillus aculeatinus Tax-6, and its mutant strain

Taxol is a rare but extremely effective antitumor agent extracted from Taxus yew barks. Taxus plants are valuable and rare species, and the production of taxol from them is a complex process. Therefore, taxol-producing endophytic fungi seem to be a promising alternative because of their high practical value and convenient progress. In this study, the transcriptome of an endophytic fungus, Aspergillus aculeatinus Tax-6 was analyzed in order to understand the molecular mechanisms of producing fungal taxol. The results showed that genes involved in the mevalonate (MVA) pathway and non-mevalonate (MEP) pathway were expressed, including isopentenyl pyrophosphate transferase, geranyl pyrophosphate transferase, and geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthetase. However, those downstream genes involved in the conversion of taxa-4(5)-11(12)-diene from geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate were not expressed except for taxane 10-beta-hydroxylase. Additionally, a mutant strain, A. aculeatinus BT-2 was obtained from the original strain, A. aculeatinus Tax-6, using fungicidin as the mutagenic agent. The taxol yield of BT-2 was 560 µg L(−1), which was higher than that of Tax-6. To identify the mechanism of the difference in taxol production, we compared the transcriptomes of the two fungi and explored the changes in the gene expression between them. When compared with the original strain, Tax-6, most genes related to the MVA pathway in the mutant strain BT-2 showed upregulation, including GGPPS. Moreover, most of the downstream genes were not expressed in the mutant fungi as well. Overall, the results revealed the pathway and mechanism of taxol synthesis in endophytic fungi and the potential for the construction of taxol-producing genetic engineering strains.