Actually I’m not 100% certain if there’s a specific cause that’s endangering the Pacific Yew tree beyond standard deforestation (and I would imagine since it’s so in demand for taxol, that’s contributed).
So the success of this means that we can first test the fusion enzyme we made to see if it works. If it does, we can use it to produce taxadiene, and then experiments can be done for the more downstream enzymes involved in making Taxol (for example, T5aOH).
Thank you! So with production in the cytoplasm, we don’t actually know a lot about how taxadiene ultimately goes from the chloroplast to the cytosol, and there are a lot of other things in the chloroplast that complicate things. So by keeping things in the cytoplasm, it’s kind of like we’re getting rid of a step.
What previous research did you find to support your hypothesis? Has this experiment been done before? If so, how do the results compare to yours?
Hi Sydney,
We read a few other papers, many of which looked at attempting to do this in other organisms.
The paper we read that guided our experiment and rationale most closely is here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33106662/
Its success is why we decided to localize to the cytosol, which we talk about in the presentation.
-Noopur
What is causing the Pacific Yew Tree to be threatened? What type of cancers does taxol treat?
Hi Ryan,
Actually I’m not 100% certain if there’s a specific cause that’s endangering the Pacific Yew tree beyond standard deforestation (and I would imagine since it’s so in demand for taxol, that’s contributed).
Taxol treats breast cancer, ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma (https://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/discovery/taxol#:~:text=Today%2C%20Taxol%20is%20on%20the,and%20AIDS%2Drelated%20Kaposi%20sarcoma.).
-Noopur
How does the plasmid results apply to potential further research?
Hi Lyda,
So the success of this means that we can first test the fusion enzyme we made to see if it works. If it does, we can use it to produce taxadiene, and then experiments can be done for the more downstream enzymes involved in making Taxol (for example, T5aOH).
Great question!
-Noopur
Great presentation! How does producing taxadiene in the cytoplasm increase the likelihood of successful production compared to the chloroplasts?
Hi Daniel,
Thank you! So with production in the cytoplasm, we don’t actually know a lot about how taxadiene ultimately goes from the chloroplast to the cytosol, and there are a lot of other things in the chloroplast that complicate things. So by keeping things in the cytoplasm, it’s kind of like we’re getting rid of a step.
Thanks for your question!
-Noopur