Screening and breeding of high taxol producing fungi by genome shuffling

To apply the fundamental principles of genome shuffling in breeding of taxol-producing fungi, Nodulisporium sylviform was used as starting strain in this work. The procedures of protoplast fusion and genome shuffling were studied. Three hereditarily stable strains with high taxol production were obtained by four cycles of genome shuffling. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of taxol produced was confirmed using thin-layer chromatography (TLC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and LC-MS. A high taxol producing fungus, Nodulisporium sylviform F4-26, was obtained, which produced 516.37 μg/L taxol. This value is 64.41% higher than that of the starting strain NCEU-1 and 31.52%–44.72% higher than that of the parent strains. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30570025), the Fifteen Important Items of Heilongjiang (Grant No. GA02C101), Harbin Youth Science Foundation (Grant No. 2005AFQXJ-063), Research Program for Scholars Overseas by Heilongjiang Education Bureau (Grant No. 1152HZ06), Department of Education of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. 10551238) and Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation of Heilongjiang University