Engineering the paclitaxel biosynthetic pathway in Physcomitrium patens for de novo and stable biosynthesis
Abstract
Paclitaxel is a highly valuable diterpenoid anticancer drug originally extracted from the yew tree. Due to the low efficiency of plant extraction and the high cost of semi-synthesis, efforts have been made to produce paclitaxel through biosynthesis. However, there have been no reports to date on engineered strains capable of paclitaxel biosynthesis. Here, we engineer a paclitaxel-producing line using the moss ( Physcomitrium patens ) chassis cells by combining transient expression verification, cytoplasmic localization strategies, self-cleaving 2 A peptide-mediated multi-gene co-expression systems and a modular iterative transformation strategy for stable genetic inheritance. Even after continuous subculturing multiple times, the engineered paclitaxel-producing lines obtained through both the initial reconstructed pathway and the optimized pathway are able to stably produce paclitaxel. This study proposes that Physcomitrium patens can serve as a plant chassis for paclitaxel biosynthesis.
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BibTeX
@article{zhao2026engineering,
title = {{Engineering the paclitaxel biosynthetic pathway in Physcomitrium patens for de novo and stable biosynthesis}},
author = {Mengkai Zhao and Wenchang Lu and Renhai Peng and Liyan Wang and Ali Raza and Bin Jia and Zhangli Hu},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-76625-x},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76625-x},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Engineering the paclitaxel biosynthetic pathway in Physcomitrium patens for de novo and stable biosynthesis
AU - Mengkai Zhao
AU - Wenchang Lu
AU - Renhai Peng
AU - Liyan Wang
AU - Ali Raza
AU - Bin Jia
AU - Zhangli Hu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-76625-x
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76625-x
AB - Paclitaxel is a highly valuable diterpenoid anticancer drug originally extracted from the yew tree. Due to the low efficiency of plant extraction and the high cost of semi-synthesis, efforts have been made to produce paclitaxel through biosynthesis. However, there have been no reports to date on engineered strains capable of paclitaxel biosynthesis. Here, we engineer a paclitaxel-producing line using the moss ( Physcomitrium patens ) chassis cells by combining transient expression verification, cytoplasmic localization strategies, self-cleaving 2 A peptide-mediated multi-gene co-expression systems and a modular iterative transformation strategy for stable genetic inheritance. Even after continuous subculturing multiple times, the engineered paclitaxel-producing lines obtained through both the initial reconstructed pathway and the optimized pathway are able to stably produce paclitaxel. This study proposes that Physcomitrium patens can serve as a plant chassis for paclitaxel biosynthesis.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -