Paclitaxel production from endophytic Mucor circinelloides isolated from Taxus sp. of the Northern Himalayan region

The current investigation involved the isolation of 13 endophytic fungi from Taxus sp. collected in Himachal Pradesh, India. Among these, isolate PAT-3 produced 195.13 mg/L of Taxol in reformative medium broth using microbial fermentation as an alternative source. The PAT-3 isolate was characterized as Mucor circinelloides through morphologic and molecular techniques. The PAT-3 isolate was the only one to exhibit positive results for the Taxol biosynthesis-related genes 10-deacetylbaccatin-III-10-O-acetyltransferase (dbat), Baccatin-III, 3: amino, 3 phenylpropanol transferase (bapt), and taxadienol-acetyltransferase (tat). Furthermore, human breast cancer (MCF-7) and human melanoma cancer (SKMEL-28) cell lines demonstrated the cytotoxicity of Taxol extracted from isolate PAT-3, with IC₅₀ values of 80.32 µg/mL and 77.21 µg/mL, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates the ability of the endophytic fungus M. circinelloides from Taxus sp. in the northern Himalayan region to produce paclitaxel. The study’s findings show that Mucor circinelloides is an excellent alternative source of Taxol, and they may pave the way for the production of Taxol at the industrial level in future.