The genomes of Taxus species unveil novel candidates in the biosynthesis of taxoids

Abstract

Taxaceae is the yew family of conifers and includes evergreen trees and small shrubs mainly distributed in Eurasia and North America. The genus of Taxus has attracted considerable attention since Monroe E. Wall and Mansukh C. Wani firstly isolated and characterized an unusual cyclic diterpenoid from the bark of the Pacific yew tree (Wani et al., 1971). This compound, subsequently called paclitaxel, was shown to promote tubulin assembly into microtubules, preventing their disassembly. Subsequently, paclitaxel was approved for medical use against ovarian cancer in 1992 (Fischer and Ganellin, 2010).