An ASM News article reports that some of these endophytes may provide valuable compounds. Many of these organisms produce antibiotics and in two different endophytes a drug called Taxol is produced. Taxol has been shown to prevent breast cancer. Unfortunately, the only known source of Taxol was the bark of the yew tree (Taxis species). Taxol is very expensive because the yew trees grow slowly and are limited in number.
Two different fungi found growing in yew trees from Montana and Nepal produce Taxol (Taxomyces andreanea and Pestalotiopsis microspora). Taxomyces andreanea was the first endophyte that was found to produce Taxol. Unfortunately, this organism only makes small amounts of the drug. Pestalotiopsis microspora, on the other hand, appears to produce much more Taxol and may be useful in producing Taxol much more cheaply.
Plants are a source of many drugs useful to us (atropine, vincristine, morphine, reserpine, digitoxin, and quinine). Unfortunately, we humans are destroying the wonder drugs of the future by the rapid destruction of the world's rainforests. An amazing 70 percent of the anticancer drugs we currently use came from tropical rain forests. Very few of the plants from these regions have been studied for their ability to help us treat human disease. Only one percent of the plants from the Amazon have been studied chemically.
These endophytes might be another source of valuable drugs of the future. Unfortunately their homes, the plants they live in, are rapidly being destroyed.
For more information on rainforest deforestation go to another of our own Suite101.com editors: Kenneth Friedman.
Take Care and Think Microbiologically!
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